Hurricane Swan
by kyky xx 123
Summary: "Haven't you thought it would be easier to tell them everything?" "Believe me, I have, but it causes more trouble than it's worth." Edward left Bella, but now Bella is back in Forks after 70 years with her new coven, will she re-unite with the Cullens? And what secrets is she hiding from all those close to her?
1. Me and my family

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight**

**A/N: So this is a new story, and whether it continues past 3 chapters depends on feedback :) Also sorry for the short chapter but it's just an intro.**

**Plus if you are reading this and read my other stories, i've had the chapter written for _The Violet Eyes _since Saturday, but there's an error and it isn't letting me post another chapter, and i'm trying every day, and i have e-mailed FF but nothing has been done as of yet, but fingers crossed it will work by the weekend :)

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The Sun rose once again. Another day, in my long life.

I grimaced and swiftly stood up from my couch, placing my book on the shelf. It looks like I can go to school today, the Sun would be behind it's thick blanket of cloud soon. Well it is Forks.

Yes I know, I finally moved back here. It has been over 70 years, it's about time I faced my demons, I wasn't getting any younger... or older for that matter.

It was a simply thing, I went for a walk in the woods one day and after a flash of white then russett, I was screaming on the floor in agony and Taa-Daa! Here I am.

After the pain had stopped I stuck my hand out into the Sun, and I immediately knew what I had turned into. I had enough sense to run and not go back home, where Charlie was searching so desperately for me, well he should have been, but he had disappeared too.

I moved to Russia, basically as far away from Forks as possible where there was an isolated area, no matter how much I hated Edward Cullen, I didn't want to drink humans. Honestly I didn't. It was an accident.

I was hiding in the forest outside of a very secluded town in the north of Russia, about 19months after I was turned, for some reason I just couldn't be around humans for very long, when a fairly good looking man was shuffling down the road, his cheeks pink and blonde hair gently tousled. At the moment I was about to run, he managed to fall over and blood was spilt.

Thankfully I managed to stop in time, but unluckily for him my venom was already in his system and after three days, he was like me. So there is the story how Adam, became my 'son', he was only a year younger than me but I was more mature than him, and as I made him a vampire he saw me as a parental figure. As did the others. Yes I said others.

There was Kaiya, who I met 12 years after Adam, at the age of 16 after she had been in a car crash but her family were already dead, and too much blood was spilt for me to drink from her, but just enough to save her. She had long black hair she often liked to tie up, as she was arty and hated her hair having it dipped in paint.

Then there was Sam, who I changed 8 years after that who was shot in an abandoned warehouse. I let him get revenge on his killers, but he wanted to just spook them and give them to the Police so they could confess and his family may be at peace, I wanted to do something more extravagant, but he reminds me a lot of Carlisle, and I understood. Also he was such a bookworm, he started from the first book ever written, and was already onto the early 1800's in 50 years. He was mated with Kaiya, and they have been married 4 times now.

Next came the twins, Jack and Joanne. They both had exactly the same shade of brown hair, the same height, but Jack was more muscly, and Joanne faster. They were what you would call the 'life and soul of the party'.

Lastly was Lawrence, or as we call him, LOL, Lorrie or Lo, has his name was Lawrence Ortis Littlewood. He was the tallest, yet the most fierce, and reminded me of Jasper, in his slight mititary ways, but that might be because I found him during the war.

All of the family but myself drink animal blood, as I gave them the choice when I changed them, but they all picked animal blood. Lorrie did have his temptations but overrode them.

So that was our little family, and to go along with it there were also some gifts thrown in. Adam could see the past of any object by touch, and if he wanted to a person, but he doesn't see thoughts, he sees actions. Kaiya can change appearances at ease, which makes we wonder if that's what her creative personality is about. Jack and Joanne didn't have any per-sé, but Joanne was unusually fast and Jack unusally strong, according to the Volturi anyway. Lorrie can plant idea's in peoples head and bend them to their will. The Volturi want him badly, but we have a deal, if they leave my family alone, i'd leave them alone.

You see I have a shield, which once was just mental, but after strengthening it and practicing it, it has also become physical, far more powerful than Renata's, but instead of simply confusing the vampire to move in another direction, I have a little extra that I can turn of when needed, I can pulse an electrical current of it aswell. If someone attacks my physical shield they will be paralysed for 10 seconds, but if they attack my mental shield I can effectively take their gift and use it for myself, but if they get away from me at a radius of about 2 miles, they immediately get it back, it's not permanent.

So that is why the Volturi as slightly apprehensive of going against me.

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**Review for a preview :D and thanks to a review, Bella is drinking human blood because she has trouble with her bloodlust in this story, and there will be something else behind it :)**


	2. First Day

**Sorry! I know it's a day late, and I know it was no excuse but I was _really _busy. And a quick note to those who read _the violet eyes_, I probably can't update till Tuesday as I am unbelievable busy till then. Also a huge thanks to...**

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I quickly picked out an outfit for the day. A pair of grey skinny jeans, with a grey t-shirt printed with a face, a blue blazer which sleeves ended at my elbows, a beige bag, and my black converse. I admit I was so tempted to wear a pair, especially as my balance has been fully restored, and some even say I am graceful for a vampire, which makes me laugh but I don't tell people why, so I love to parade around the house in them, but it was school back in my old home, I wanted to tell the town I had changed, but not _that _much.

I raced down to the front door after I had tied my hair into a messy bun, and looked at the clocks noticing we had 10 minutes to get there. Plus we still had to pick up our schedules. I was easily the eldest so I was joining as a senior, yet Lorrie also looked mature so he was also one. Then Adam and Sam were juniors, and lastly Kaiya, Jack and Joanne were sophomores.

"Come on!" I shouted unnecessarily, as they'd all hear me if I merely spoke the works, but I liked the effect. Besides I really wanted to be on time on the first day. I began tapping my foot, and they slowly walked through the front door, after I was finally able to lock it, I jumped into my silver Audi R8, which was the only car I owned but I also owned a motorcycle. Adam was in the passenger seat and Lol was in the back. Whereas Kaiya, Sam, Jack and Joanne, were loaded into Sam's ice blue Mercedes cabriolet.

"Excited?" Adam asked.

"Well it's only my third time, but is there actually anything to even look forward to?" Lorrie said from the back. The first time was when he was human, and the second time was eight years ago, when he was finally able to control his blood-lust.

When we arrived at school I quickly slipped my dark green contacts in. The red was too noticeable, but I didn't want to resemble myself too much, also Adam had managed to coat the lenses with a special chemical of sorts, which causes the venom in my eyes to disintegrate them at a slower rate, so I only had to change them, at most, twice a day, and this option is better than Kaiya having to keep her concentration on me all day, which is avoidable as there is another option. But Adam frowned at me.

"Why do you only let me see certain parts of your past?" He asked, almost out of the blue. Almost because he asks this question when he sees something that reminds him of my past that he had glimpsed. Like James' eyes and the old copy of Wuthering Heights I keep in a secluded corner in my room.

"Because it's not your past." I snapped. He knows how I get when it is mentioned so he doesn't take my mood very seriously.

"Yes. Yes. And now you are going to tell me how I should stop being nosey, blah, blah blah." He grins at me and sticks his tongue out, which does call me to smile at him. That's one of the reasons Adam and I are quite close, he knows how to lighten the mood, we both technically don't have mates, and he always keeps the secrets he was intrusted with. That's why I don't like prying into his past, as he has many secrets, even from his human live he'd be loathed to share, it doesn't matter if the owner to the secret has long since taken permanent residence below the earth, he is very loyal.

"Hey, Marie. You coming?" Joanne called. My family agreed that in this small town the name Bella might be easily recognised, especially with the high profile after my disappearance, plus this town is gossipy, so the story is bound to have been passed down.

After we collected our schedules, I made my way to my first class, Art. Since I have changed, I find that painting calms me, especially if I start feeling something about my past, which is normally anger or pain. I was also in the class with Kaiya, as they had to mix up some years, as apprently there aren't many crafty people at the school. I liked Mr Holm though, he at least had a sense of humour, and was quite laid-back. Then I had Stats with Mrs Jones. She made it almost possible for a vampire to sleep. After, I had History with Miss Newton. Ha! According to Sam my face was picture worthy when I heard her name. Yet despite her grandfather's antics, she was a nice woman, and if I wasn't her student and a vampire, I would love to be friends with her. Plus she's better looking than he was.

Finally it was lunch. I just grabbed a bottle of water, otherwise Joanne would go on about starving people. I'm not knocking it, we make a healthy donation every month, but she wants us to at least have one day a week of not wasting food. So I go along, especially as it's one less pretense to worry about.

I arrived at the table just in time to stop Jack pouring a bucket of cold water over Adam's head. But I just gave him a sharp look, so he dumped it over his twin's head instead, and then he fell on the floor laughing, the rest of my family gripping onto the tables for support. While I just sighed accompanied with an eye-roll. Adam noticed this and looked at me concerned.

"You alright?" I nodded.

"I just get uptight being here." I smile at him, which doesn't rub the worried look off his face, but it placates him enough for now to drop it.

The rest of the day is uneventful, unless you count Joanne roping Kaiya in, to turn Jack's hair bright pink without his knowledge. Lets put it this way, a curly haired, fairly tall, very muscly guy walking around like he owns the place, with bubblegum pink hair... who couldn't laugh at that! If I remember there were also many pictures taken. He only realised what happened when he demanded to see a picture.

Oh my family never fail to entertain.

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	3. Adam's story

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Every day that week passed the same way. Went to school, went home, read a book, refereed some matches. Same old, same old I admit some of the boys tried to ask me out, to my utter embarrassment and to my family's humor. But today was Saturday, and I was going to do something I had wanted to do for years. I was going to try and find the meadow.

Adam, of course offered to go with me, but it would be the first time since, well the day I died. I had been trying to find the meadow that day when it happened. So I wanted to go alone, because I'd have no idea how it would affect me, plus I don't want to give him another reason to be curious.

Ever since I had met him, he has always been trying to see into my past, but I couldn't and wouldn't let him. I have had the memories bottled up to so long now, I don't know how i'll react if they are released. He has persuaded me in many ways, so I often asked him why he didn't tell me about his past then. He simply said there wasn't much to tell but had a pained look in his eyes, which told me I shouldn't bring it up again, but he still seems to think that if he catches me off guard, I will tell him. No way that is going to work.

I left fairly early. Adam was out hunting with Lorrie, Jack and Joanne were trying to do some form of prank involving paintball guns and hamburgers- don't ask, I have no idea what goes through the heads of those two- on Kaiya and Sam who were... 'messing around' in Kaiya's studio. So I could leave fairly unnoticed.

I decided to run today, I'd take my bike out tomorrow, or maybe even to school next week, it was been neglected lately. I had built it myself, it's a hobby I liked to do, so I was now the mechanic of the family. I even built some of the cars from scratch, we thankfully had enough money, Jack and Joanne's parents had been fairly rich, we had some luck on the stock market, and every now and then some of us take up jobs to get that little bit extra.

It took me a while but I found the meadow in the end, and it looked exactly the same, even prettier through my vampire eyes, but it didn't feel the same. It felt like a place of loss and things long forgotten. I vaguely noticed my breathing hitch and my body involuntarily curling in on itself, but I was focusing on the memories flashing through my mind.

It started happy, like the time when we went to this very meadow and he told me how he felt, the first night I was aware he stayed, the time I went to his home for the first time and he played me my lullaby, the time he saved me from James, all the times he said he loved me. Then the time he said he didn't. He lied. The whole time I was played, I was a penny haired vampires little toy. It must have been hilarious for his family to see as well. How easily this little human could be used, and she didn't suspect a thing. It actually made me angry, which then made me surprised, as I had always believed that if I thought about it I would be cripplingly sad. Oh no, my mind never ceases to surprise me.

I made a small laugh in relief. I think I shall be able to cope with anger against sadness.

"Bella?" I jumped up in surprise and turned to face...

"Adam, let me guess you followed me?" I put my hands on my hips trying to be stern, but he just grinned sheepishly.

"Well not followed exactly, as I just came across your scent and... okay I followed it, but technically not _you_."

"Oh I love your explanation oh wise one." I said in a sarcastic tone but let a grin spread across my face. "Come here," I sat down on the grass and gestured for him to sit beside me, he hesitated but then came to sit next to me.

"This is a beautiful place."

"Oh yes, it's even more beautiful now than when I was human." I could see Adam's mouth fall open in shock.

"You're ready?" He asked in shock, and I nodded.

"But I'm not going to show you, I'll tell you." He nodded eager to hear anything. So I told him.

I vaguely told him what I remembered of my life before I moved to Forks, what I remembered about my dad, a bit about friends I remembered, like Angela, then I told him everything about Edward. By the end of it he was fuming.

"How could he do that to you?" He said while pacing around. "Stupid good for nothing vampires!" He screamed while throwing a tree a couple of miles away, them crumpled to the ground in sobs. I appeared next to him in a flash, worried by the sudden change in his emotions.

"She left me too Bella." He sobbed, I sat in shock while rubbing is back.

"What do you mean?" I whispered, hoping he hadn't suffered the same fate I have.

"I was in love with her, a vampire, but she left me too. Said she didn't love me, said she loved someone else." He sobbed harder, and I found myself sobbing with him.

"Are you sure you want to talk about it now?" I chocked out.

"Yes, or I might never be able to." He took a deep breath and began. "I had just celebrated my 16th birthday. I was out collecting wood when I saw her walking through the tree's towards me. She was so beautiful, she had long auburn hair, was normal height, but carried herself proudly. She told me how her car had broken down on the road. Wanting to help this damsel in distress, I followed her.

"When we arrived at the place where she claimed her car was, there was nothing. That was when I turned around to see her bright ruby eyes leaning over me hungrily. But I wasn't afraid, I actually still found her beautiful, so I smiled. She grew confused and fled." I gasped, that was incredibly difficult, to run away when you are about to make the kill, but I stopped that after the first couple of years and now drink donated blood.

"So I researched and quickly found out she was a vampire, and like you I decided it didn't matter. She came back a month after our last meeting and told me that she thought she loved me and I said that I did too. She changed her diet for me, and I kept her secret, even from my little sister. Just after my 17th birthday though, it seems a vampire followed her scent to my house, but we were both out, when we came back they had killed my sister." He clutched his head tightly, like he was trying to crush it into dust.

"She was 12. She had barely lived. I grew angry and in my grief filled haze told her to leave me alone. So she did. A couple of weeks later, I saw her again, and ran up to her. I told her how sorry I was, how I knew it wasn't my fault, but she just stared at me, then said _'I'm so sorry Adam, i've found someone else. I truly hope you find happiness without me' _Then ran away." By this point he was staring ahead into space, and I brushed a bit of hair of his forehead, feeling motherly love for him.

"It had been 2 months and 6 days since she left, till you found me. At first I thought she had come back for me. But it wasn't meant to be I guess." He gave me a small smile. "But my only regret is that I couldn't say a proper goodbye to my parents, but I made a vow to them, To kill the vampire who killed my little sister."

"I will help you in anyway I can."

"Thank you." He nodded curtly at me, then held out a hand to help me up.

Just as we were about to leave the meadow, a disgusting stench blew in our faces. Then a figure stepped out of the trees, their eyes wide in shock.

"Jacob Black?"

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**Awww poor Adam, who killed his sister? and does his story sound familiar? ;)**

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	4. Jacob Black

**It's not fixed yet :'( but I hope you like the chapter!**

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**APOV**

I was relieved to finally be able to tell someone about what happened to me, but it was weird how similar our stories actually were. Was it the time for the vampires to drop their human toys?

The way we were both left within months of each other makes me wonder if the vampires we loved actually loved each other. I wonder if Bella was thinking the same thing, but she was busy gawking at a large stinky man.

"Bella?" His face was stiff in what seemed to be sadness, but his eyes showed a disgusted joy. I didn't even know that such a thing existed.

She took a tentative step towards him then it seemed she finally caught his smell, as she began to retch.

"Why do you smell like a sweaty dog?" She gasped out, while he glared.

"Well you don't smell too good yourself." He huffed while crossing his arms. Then his eyes landed on me and he growled. "And you are?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. Yeah, like I was going to tell him. He seemed to understand this and asked Bella instead.

"His name is Adam." She turned and looked at me sternly. "Adam stop being difficult." I stuck my tongue out at her which caused her to sigh and turn away, then took a few steps towards Jacob. When she reached her fourth step his eyes narrowed and got closer and closer together with every advancing step; until he growled and bent into a crouch. From Lorrie's memories of war, I have come to understand that this is a form of aggression, and leaped in front of my vampire mother/sister and best friend, and let a growl escape my throat, warning him.

He growled back and took a step forward- then I ran for him, then he turned into a wolf and charged at me. Just before we were due to collide I skidded underneath his huge form and flipped over so I landed on his back. I then reached a hand back to break one of his legs, but he managed to toss me off.

I had spun 90 degrees when I felt his teeth in my right shoulder. I screamed and tried to throw him off, but was unsuccessful. His teeth tightened and I knew that in a matter of seconds my shoulder along with my arm would be ripped off. I might be able to re-attach it, but who knows, he is a werewolf.

Just as he was pulling his head back, his jaw opened and he flew across the meadow howling, and crouched in front of me was my whole family. But in the meadow by Jacob, were seven other wolves.

Seeing their fellow wolf howling in what seemed to be extreme pain caused their attack. When they were little more than nine metres away, Bella stepped forward and the clouds above gathered and the wind picked up; she was angry.

"Stop!" They carried on their advance, which caused a gust of air to expand from around her and when it hit the wolves, it caused a flash of electricity and the wolves flew in different directions, crashing into the opposite end of the meadow or various trees lining it.

Some of the wolves were knocked out, while some were whimpering slightly. Jacob, who was still lying on the ground turned back into his human form; naked, but no-one was bothered, and while he was in his human form I could see some bones jutting out of his left leg and shoulder.

"Why?" He wailed.

"What are you talking about?" Bella demanded, still angry.

"I thought you might have maintained a shred of humanity in your vampire life. I should have let the red headed leech kill you, or let Sam kill you when you were in the transition."

The wind immediately died down, and I knew Bella was either shocked or in pain. I tried to get up to help her, but involuntarily let out a cry of pain, causing Kaiya and Sam to come to my aid. I looked at Lorrie pointedly and suddenly the pain left so I could get up. He had given my brain the idea that I was perfectly fine, I just had to remember to not look at or move my shoulder.

I swiftly stood up and told Kaiya and Joanne to take Bella hunting or at least home, just as long as it was away from here. I quickly stood in front of Bella blocking her sight to the wolves and saw the familiar look of pain in her face, with her eyes glazed. I didn't want to touch her as it's likely her shield will be down and it would feel wrong to invade her privacy like that.

"Bella, go with Kaiya and Joanne. Go hunting. I'll come and see you later." Her eyes showed some recognition, and that was all I was going to get at this moment in time, so I motioned to my sisters and they guided her away from the meadow and into the forest.

Once she was out of sight and hearing I turned to the wolves with Lorrie, Jack and Sam on my flanks.

"What do you mean? You were there when she was changed? She said she didn't remember much."

"Yes. She was wandering in the woods, and we were off hunting leeches," he spat the last word, "when we came across one with dreads we took him out easily, but he had the smell of another leech on his clothes, so we searched and found a trail, but when we got to the end of the trail the red headed leech, but she had taken Bella from behind and sunk her teeth into her neck, then she caught our scent and ran. She managed to out-run us though and took to the sea. I ran back to Bella while the others patrolled the borders of Forks and La Push, and found her writhing on the floor screaming. Paul told me to kill her. Sam was on his way to me, knowing I wouldn't be able to kill her and he hates abusing his alpha powers, so knew he couldn't force me to do it, but I couldn't have her killed. It wasn't her fault. So I argued with Sam until he agreed. But he said that if she drank from a human we would have to kill her, I agreed." He took a deep breath. "So I have to honour our agreement."

By this time the rest of his pack had regrouped and were inching forward.

"Why can't we get along?" Sam asked, always the peacemaker.

"Because we are vampires." Lawrence said.

"And we are wolves." Jacob said, "It's in the blood." With an unseen signal the wolves charged at us one again, but without Bella, there was no shield to stop them.

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	5. The Agreement

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**APOV**

In the two seconds before they were going to hit us, Lorrie and I shared a look and I jumped, Jack and Sam following. LOL faced off the 5 remaining wolves, as the other three were injured (including Jacob), and got to work on his power. Jack was trying distracting three wolves and was holding them off well with his super strength, Sam could keep the other two following him, but knew he couldn't fight them without losing.

Lawrence and I had this technique ready for many years, it only needed to be us two as Lorrie would put the ideas in the others head anyway, but we knew we'd have to prepare for the eventuality that Bella won't be there one day. My job was to hit the leader.

I leaped directly for Jacob Black, Bella's brother-like figure, but in my eyes that was destroyed when he tried to kill her, and pulled out a knife I always carried, I slipped it in my mouth and coated it in venom. Sam was an avid reader, and he had heard many stories about the wolves, who can chose to transform on a full moon, and how to kill them.

One man made a study that if a wolf was vampire venom is introduced to a shape-shifters bloodstream they will be irreversibly poisoned, but also there is something in shifters saliva that one comes into contact with a vampire's venom, in less than two hours will destroy the rest. This means that my arm will never heal and I will die if I don't receive venom from another vampire soon, but according to studies if not done in time, it can lead to insanity. Oh and another important detail, the venom has to come from my sire.

Difficult in the state she is in at the moment, but for now I need to protect my family.

I leaped behind the incapacitated wolf, and faced his pack while placing the knife to his throat.

"Stop or I slit his throat." His pack froze and looked at their leader and me, but they didn't look convinced, so Sam spoke up.

"He won't heal from this; the blade is coated with vampire venom." Now that caused them to look actually terrified. So they cared for their leader as we care for each other. Interesting...

"How about we create an agreement, we know it has been done before between shifters and vampires. We agree not to kill anyone, and you don't attack. Believe me none of us... well maybe Bella, wants to be friends but we don't have to fighting constantly and destroy this town." I suggest; my thoughts were already beginning to muddle.

"But Bella drinks human blood." Jacob spat, his voice shaking with anger.

"That she does, but she doesn't kill anyone for it. That's what blood banks are for, but she does drink from animals every now and then... hopefully that's what she is doing now, but if this is going to prevent us from creating this... agreement, then we will help her to only drink from animals, but that might result in a killing. So it won't be... Erm... immediate." I said, blinking a couple of times to try and clear my mind.

Jacob looked thoughtful for a couple of minutes, and after a look at his pack members, the majority who gave a small nod, and a grey one who growled, he cleared his throat and spoke.

"Agreed, but if anyone in this town is killed, unless there is enough evidence to prove it's another vampire, we kill you. No arguments, agreements or exceptions. Oh and in a week come along the main road, we will meet you and show you the line which marks our land."

"Perfect, and I assure you if anything does happen, we will kill you too, you saw what Bella could do," and with that, I slipped the knife back into my pocket and fell back onto the ground, feeling the energy drain out of my body. I heard Sam move to come to my aid, but Lawrence told him to help Jacob, he was the one who practised medicine the most and he knows more about the shifters than any of us.

"Can you get up?" Lorrie asked coming towards me.

"Not by myself."

Jack immediately appeared at my side and lifted me over his shoulder.

"You take him to find Bella, tell her to give him her venom, and be quick about it." Lorrie instructed and Jack immediately sped off.

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**BPOV**

So it was Victoria who sent me to this fate. Not only that, she is still alive. My mind was whirring in circles thinking about how I could take revenge on her, and I vaguely heard Adams voice tells me to leave with Kaiya and Joanne. Then I felt their hands on my arms and my feet moving, but my mind was too deep in thought to respond to any of this.

My mind was turning to ways I could punish Victoria, when for some reason an image of Alice screaming at Edward entered my mind, I couldn't make out what was being said, but took note of the rest of the Cullen's stood around, then he said something and Alice leaped on him and began to bite every inch of his arms and hit his face, and everyone watched, in horror. Then a beautiful female entered the scene and dragged Alice off her brother and comforted him.

I suddenly realised who the female was. _She had long auburn hair, was normal height. She was beautiful. _Adams description fit almost perfectly, apart from the fact she now had gold eyes instead of red.

Pain shot through me, the pain I was expecting in the meadow, but worse. I cried out, and curled into a ball, feeling hatred towards Edward Cullen and his family, well I now have less hatred to Alice, as she was beating Edward up thoroughly, but it hasn't lessened enough for me to forgive her in any way shape or form. If I'm honest I loathe the Cullen's.

"Bella?" Kaiya asked rubbing my back while I sobbed. "Are you alright?"

"No shit Sherlock." Joanne scoffed, I briefly looked up to see her knelt in front of me and pushed some hair off my face. "Come on Mum, pull it together." She said in her English accent, as her and her twin originate from London, but I couldn't stop the sobbing or the pain.

I told them this and I could tell Kaiya wanted to ask what was wrong but Joanne shot her a look, so she suggested that I try to push it behind my shield. As I was about to give it a third go, Jack bounded up to us carrying what looked like Adam over his shoulder. Pain now forgotten, I rushed up to them and saw Adams shoulder.

Sam had told me a lot about the shape-shifters, so I could piece two and two together. I gasped and snatched him off Jacks back and laid him gently on the floor. I quickly examined his shoulder and saw that even if it does heal it is going to leave a hell of a scar, but what worried me most was that he wasn't conscious anymore. I racked my brains for what Sam had told me about Shifter bites, but my mind was blank with fear and guilt. I began to panic, but Jack spoke up.

"You need to give him your venom." I calmed slightly, remembering now, but wasn't sure exactly how.

"Just lick his shoulder, that'll be the quickest way." Joanne said standing next to her twin looking worried but calm.

"Oh yes, Sam mentioned something like that, it's the quickest and most effective way." Kaiya added.

Well that settled it. Let's say it's good we were all comfortable with each other. I looked at his unusually pale face and without hesitation tried to heal him, if it wasn't too late.

As soon as my venom made contact with his injury though, his eyes flew open and began to scream.

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**Yay! Adam saved the day! And just to put you all out your misery he will live, I'm just not going to say if there are any effects of the bite ;)**

**Any questions?**

**Reviews = Virtual Hugs **


	6. Self Pity

**It's not fixed yet, but I got bored :). Thanks to:**

**edwardluv | vampire5596 | VampireGirl141995 | Twifan111 | jaspizzle | J.A.B.E | theisis70 **

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**BPOV**

"Bella, he will be fine." Jack said to my left. It was almost dawn and I was stood outside my room on the top floor's balcony of our house, well mansion, in the middle of a heavy storm in September.

We built it in a week; it was based on a place we had visited about 60 years ago in London. It had five floors including a basement. The whole back half of the house was basically glass. We had 9 bedroom suites, 6 reception rooms, a cinema room, indoor pool, gym and leisure facilities, 8 person lift as well as secure underground parking for 6 cars, a study for myself and Sam, a gaming room which occupied half the basement, a kitchen and dining room (just in case), a music room- Jack and Joanne enjoyed composing their own music, and a shed separate for Kaiya's art.

"I hope so." I looked at Jack and saw the worry on his face. "Is this just about Adam?" I asked him.

"I've never seen you that bad before." He looked down across the forest surrounding our garden. It was about 3 acres of grass, then at the end a large pond, which Kaiya liked to paint, and dense forest surrounded it. I reached over and gave my sons shoulder a squeeze.

"I'm sorry, but as you have guessed, my past isn't sunshine and rainbows."

"But is any of ours? We all ended up a vampire or would be dead." I winced slightly, Adam told them he had been attacked and left for dead, not that I attacked him.

Unfortunately for me, Jack noticed my wince and turned to face me, the heavy rain causing his curls to plaster his forehead. I was saved by Sam calling me, and I jumped over the glass divider to the floor below which was inhabited by Kaiya, Sam and Adam. I slid aside the glass door and slipped into Adams room.

"Adam!" I shouted running over to him and giving him a hug, careful to avoid his shoulder as it was still healing, after I pulled away, he gave me a weak smile, his skin too pale for my liking. I felt the guilt I have been feeling for the past day and a half rise up again, it must have been readable on my face, as Adam noticed.

"Not your fault." He said, but his voice didn't sound very convincing.

"But I just stood there, if everyone else hadn't heard he would have killed you." I said looking down at his teal bedspread. Beds are so much more comfortable than sofas, besides they're useful for times like these.

He didn't say anything for a while, but with a sigh lifted my chin up with his uninjured side.

"We made an agreement out of it didn't we? No-one died did they?"

"Not the point," I mumbled and he glared at me.

"Forget it Bella, I'm fine now. No harm done." I raised an eyebrow and glanced at his shoulder which was already producing a thick scar. "You know what I mean," he rolled his eyes.

"Bella, can I talk to you about something?" Sam asked from behind me, I looked over my shoulder questioningly and expanded my shield over him, I have recently discovered that I can read someone's thoughts if I concentrate hard enough and they are willing to share.

_Just come outside._

He exited the room, leaving me in slight confusion, but Sam isn't the kind of person to be secretive unless it is very important.

"Just go, I won't die while you're gone." He gave a chuckle while I glared at him, "Sorry, but it's true."

"Kaiya, keep an eye on Mr I-almost-died-but-it's-a-laughing-matter."

Kaiya came quickly, "Of course." She smiled and sat opposite Adam while leaning against the foot and began brushing her hair.

"Adam, if you don't do as Kaiya says she will get Joanne to look after you. Understood?" I told him, to which he gave a gulp and a nod.

We were well out of range of hearing when I caught up with Sam. He was sat on a tree root with a hand in his dark hair talking to Lawrence who was stood tall and military-like as usual.

"So?" I asked getting impatient.

"Well Adam looks like he is healing, but Joanne told me how he was unconscious when he got to you, and according to my books there will be some affect from it, but what it'll be I don't know."

I sighed and sank to the ground, feeling guiltier now, it would have been so easy to stop the two of them, and now Adam was paying for my idiocy.

"Don't wallow in self-pity, it won't help anyone," Lawrence said, always honest, but knowing what you needed to hear.

"So what do we do?" I asked quietly.

"Don't tell him and just keep an eye on him, if anything does happen we need to be ready to help him, and we'll figure out the rest later." Lawrence ordered. "Now you are coming with me."

Sam ran off back home and I stood still glaring at Lorrie.

"I'm perfectly fine with my current diet thank you very much." I grumbled, he stared at me with his eyebrows raised.

"You know I'll just carry you there."

"If I remember I'm stronger than you."

"But when was the last time you drunk anything?" Dang, he had me there.

I grudgingly started into the dense forest and finally located a mountain lion, after I drained it, I turned to Lorrie disgusted.

"Urgh, I remember why I prefer humans now."

"Get used to it. That was part of the agreement." He growled at me, losing his patience. Lawrence was the one in the family who truly resented becoming a vampire, all of his family and friends were killed in the war, and he was ready to die when I changed him. We are all a family but he sometimes he appears to hate me, I'm not complaining, if he wanted to I'd let him kill me, but he loves me like a sister. We have more of a brother and sister relationship.

"I know. I know, doesn't mean I have to like it any more." I muttered walking past him. He grabbed my arm as I walked past.

"We won't let you kill anyone you know." He told me, eyes going soft.

"I know, but there might come a time when you can't stop me."

"Wouldn't bet on it. Race you home?"

I grinned at him and we raced home, having so much fun to remember Joanne's prank traps which causes Lawrence to look like a huge chicken and me to be covered in lime green paint.

After a quick revenge, which involved burning all their clothes but two purple sparkly tracksuits, everyone but Adam and I got ready for school, Jack and Joanne wearing their tracksuits, and left for school.

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**Photo's of the house has been put up on my profile, just scroll down :) and i will be less depressing next chapter, promise :D**

**One review? Really? :'( **


	7. Prank Day

**Got bored again, but I'm back at school so it's a one off :'( **

**Thank you to the small rise in reviews and thanks to these people:**

**TwilightGurlFanatic1234 | lionnara | louannemitrob | Arolla | Darbz**

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**BPOV**

It had been a week since the incident in the meadow and Adam's shoulder was finally healed, (Adam and I haven't been back to school in that time as he was healing and I was still uneasy over human blood), so we decided to celebrate, Swan family style.

"It's prank day!" Joanne announced from the garden, and within seconds everyone was gathered already excited.

"You know the rules. You can only target up to two people in the family and only one prank for each person, _no _truces, and the person with the least successful or worst prank has to dress, act and speak like the opposite gender for a week and another punishment of the family's choosing. You have 24 hours to complete the prank." I reminded everyone, and then began the countdown, "3-2-1-GO!" Everyone ran off in a certain direction.

I ran into the forest and dived into the river to lose anyone if they were following. I found an abandoned little cottage a few years ago which provide my 'prank base', so it's important no-one follows. I swim for awhile then leap out the river into the tree's then leap through the tops till I reached the cottage.

I decided to target Sam and Jack this time. It has been 3 years since Sam, and Jacks reactions were hilarious. After some thinking I thought up a couple of pranks to play on them.

**sHsHsHs**

Two hours later, I was sat in the cinema room, quite smug, but suspicious; the calm before the storm. I was just sat with my fingers crossed hoping that no-one picked me. No such luck.

Three hours and fourteen minutes after the beginning of the Twenty-Four hours, Jack made his mark, on me and Lawrence. I had ventured into the garage to find my bike a purple disco ball, and next to it Lawrence's Lotus Eagle was its twin. I screamed in rage and stormed up into the house to find Jack smacking the floor with his hand in laughter, but then I thought about how furious Lawrence was going to be at Jack, which comforted me somewhat.

"Lawwwwwwwwwwrencccccce," I called, which caused Jack to immediately stop his laughter.

"What?" He growled appearing at the bottom of the stairs behind Jack, who seemed to realise what he had done.

"Jack here made your Eagle a reminder of his tracksuit." I told him solemnly, Jack bolted as Lorrie screamed in rage.

I couldn't help laughing feeling slightly sorry for Jack, but after being reminded of what he did to my bike, wanting to rip him apart, oh well, I'll get him back later.

"Oh and he made my bike its twin, punish him for me." I called after them from where I could hear various 'Ow's from the garden.

"Bella? Come here for a minute." I looked directly upwards and saw Adam on the third floor looking down. Reluctantly I climbed the stairs to meet him. He ushered me into his room and sat me on the sofa opposite his bed.

"Wait here." He disappeared into his closet for a few moments and returned with a object wrapped in gold paper. "Happy 88th Birthday." I sat there, my mouth almost coming unhinged at the joints.

"How did you know?" We usually celebrated my birthday on February 19th, the day of my transformation.

"After you told me about you past, I did some research into the towns' old files, and easily found the announcement of your birth." Oh, that explains it. "Now I remember what you told me, but it was seventy years ago, things have changed, and I won't tell anyone."

He placed the object onto my lap and left the room. I slowly unwrapped the gold paper and was left with a oddly familiar scrap book, then a memory came to me of my 18th birthday and my father giving me a camera along with this off my mother. I opened the book and was greeted of a picture of teenagers, _Mike Newton, Ben Cheney, Eric Yorkie, Angela Weber and Jessica Stanley (Sept. 2007) _was written in scrawled handwriting underneath. They were followed by many others including a few which made me laugh, like Mike Newton looking shocked as he was caught with his mouth full. There were some photos missing, but the white tabs underneath for labelling were blanked out, it was done for a reason, so I didn't want to bring up memories why. After photo's of the house I used to live in, came photo's of a happy young couple and written underneath in Adam's neat handwriting was _Charles and Renee Swan (Jan. 1989). _My parents, it seemed to be their marriage the January before I was born. Many more followed, of my parents, some with me included always accompanied with a grazed knee or a bruised chin, one of me and my father on a fishing holiday, a few of me and my mom at her and Phil's wedding. Then came many photo's of me and my new family over the past 70 years, mainly involving pranks, but some of Kaiya's and Sam's nine weddings.

I must have sat there for at least four hours, flicking through the album, trying to imprint each photo on my memory, but was disrupted by a smash from outside. I jumped up, leaving the album safe in Adam's room, and leaped outside to see the equivalent of a paint explosion cover the garden and house. I think Joanne was the perpetrator as she kept pointing at Kaiya's face and giggling her head off.

"Joanne sweetie?" I said sweetly, noticing that Kaiya look at me hopefully, "remember to clean this up later." Kaiya started whingeing about how it was all of her paint and she had done the same to all her portraits.

"It's prank day, I can't do anything." I told her and walked off, leaving her to be comforted by Sam.

The next prank happened exactly twelve hours into it, it involved Sam's laptop, which was his most prized possession, being painted hot pink and various feathers and plastic jewels stuck to it and then his whole study re-decorated to that particular theme. That was when the usually calm and composed Sam changed into the swearing blindly and throwing stuff around Sam. Kaiya couldn't even calm him down, but the best part was that I installed a video camera in his study to capture every moment. When Sam found out he vowed to pay me back when I least expected it, and that was the censored version.

Kaiya's pranks were just over fifteen hours into it, it involved changing Joanne's usual shampoo to a permanent bright orange dye, which takes four weeks to wash out and hiding the steering wheel to Adam's car and refusing to give it back.

Lawrence planted the idea into Jack and Joanne's head that their music room had been demolished and that they were pregnant women, you would have thought it would have been funnier that Jack thought he was heavily pregnant but Joanne was completely disgusted and began crying all over the place. This carried on for two hours, before Lawrence took pity on them and enough video footage was captured.

Adam's prank was directed at Lawrence and was four hours before the end. It included taking his Eagle for a trip off the cliff; the poor thing hadn't had a good day.

Sam commenced with his plan which was on Kaiya and Jack, he made them into a full English breakfast: eggs, beans, sausage... the lot. This unfortunately caused them to eat it, which wasn't pleasant for them.

Sam's prank was perfect for my last one, as Jack needed to take a shower. I put bright orange ink in the water and pink dye in his shampoo, amazingly he only realised as he was washing the shampoo out of his once brown curls. Then he came racing after me, starkers I might add, giving everyone a view of his luminescent orange figure.

Finally the twenty-four hours were up, and it was voting time.

"So to remind everyone: Kaiya had the steering wheel and the orange hair dye. Sam had the English breakfast. Lawrence had the pregnancy and the music room. Adam had the car over the cliff, may it rest in peace. Joanne had the paint explosion. Jack had the purple motors. Lastly I had the orange skin and pink hair and the pink study. Name the one you thought was the weakest."

"I vote Joanne." Lawrence hollered.

"I vote Sam." Kaiya said on the opposite side of the room to her husband.

"Joanne." Sam said.

"Adam." Jack called.

"Sam, 'cause I love you twin two." Joanne announced.

"Sam. Sorry mate." Adam apologised.

"Gee, thanks. Why is it you always leave me for the decider?" They all grinned at me. "You know what, I'm going for... Kaiya." I laughed at Joanne's and Sam's faces. "So that means you both are punished!"

The room erupted in laughter as the two losers made their way to the basement where the stuff was kept. It involved beards, moustaches, fake boobs, wigs, contacts, the whole shebang.

Oh life was good.

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**Yeah so I realised it was getting a bit depressing so I added a bit of fun, unfortunately it'll get serious again :/**

**Any questions? Any suggestions of things to be added?**

**I LOVE reviews ;) **


	8. Joseph and Samantha

**Thanks to all the positive response for the last chapter, it was fun to write, but I will try to add a joke of sorts into every other chapter.**

**Thanks to:**

**vikkisecret42 | Fanpire123 | VAMPIRE406 | VampireGirl141995 | lionnara**

**and an even bigger thanks to XxZOmBIE uNICoRNxX**

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**BPOV**

"Come now Joseph and Samantha, we don't want to be late." I forced in my laughter at my family members, unlike the rest of them who had every camera they owned on the two vampires walking out the door.

I must admit 'Samantha' will probably cause guys to come fawning after her, and 'Joseph' will cause the girls and possibly even guys to want him/her. Samantha had long dark wavy hair and 'statuesque' figure, with she clothed with white skinny jeans and a tight purple t-shirt which emphasised their curves, and white converse. We decided the boys don't have to wear heels as there isn't much a guy wears that girls don't so it's unfair on the opposite sex. Joseph had medium length auburn hair which was pretty straight, and had a figure of subtle muscle. He wore a black leather jacket, with black tight t-shirt and jeans with black converse.

"Well I'll take Joseph, and Adam you can have Samantha." I called winking at Joanne a.k.a. Joseph, who just glared. "Don't be sour Jo-jo." I wined walking up and hugging his arm.

Adam slowly walked up to Samantha, and just before he reached her, he looked at Kaiya. "Do you mind?" Kaiya simply scoffed and tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked towards her husband's car.

"Of course not, no physical or verbal contact for a week." 'Samantha' whimpered at that, which caused the laughter to rise again.

When we reached the school, Adam, Samantha, Joseph and I in my Audi, the others in Sam's Mercedes, I went to the office and quickly explained the absence of Sam and Joanne of exchanging places with their cousins Jack and Joanne, for an assignment.

I clung to Joseph's arm, milking this for all it was worth, much to her- I meant _his _annoyance. Adam was doing a similar thing with Samantha, glaring at any boy who looked her way and laying an arm over her shoulders possessively. The best thing about the punishment is that they have to play along with the whole thing.

We eventually arrived at Joseph's and I's first lesson, Art, and Adam and Samantha went off to their trig lesson.

"Marie, you are late, but as I'm a nice teacher, I'll let you off."

"Why thank you Mr Holm." I mock bowed at him who laughed.

"So who is your friend?" He asked.

"Oh, an old friend who has swapped places with Joanne and Sam for an assignment."

"Okay well set your Damon-esque boyfriend up over there." I looked at him slightly shocked, but then again Mr Holm is quite observant. "What? I can read the Vampire Diaries every now and then," he winked.

"Yes sir, and by-the-way his name is Joseph." He looked questioningly at the name then leant over to whisper in my ear.

"One of your families pranks then?" He chuckled and walked off before I could comment.

"Ha, can't fool everyone I see." Joseph said in his smooth but deep voice.

"Shut it _Joseph._" I hissed leaning back in my chair, looking at the Art teacher curiously.

"Marie, don't fret, he's completely human." He hissed, too low for anyone but me to hear.

"What's up?" Kaiya came over as the lesson had begun and people were getting their paints and things.

"Marie here thinks there is something weird with Hr Holm." Joseph explained with a roll of the eyes.

"Don't be silly, as we have already figured out he is very observant, if he was any more observant he would have figured out we are vampires by now."

"Who says he hasn't?" I demanded crossing my arms, getting annoyed no-one was taking this seriously. The two of them just sighed.

During the rest of the lesson I didn't talk to the other two, still miffed at them.

When it came to Stats, I met Adam and Kaiya on the way, who pulled me and Joseph into a vacated classroom.

"What?" I hissed.

"Do you trust me?" Adam asked, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"Of course." I said without hesitation.

"Will you go home with Kaiya?"

"Why? What's wrong Kaiya?" I asked, looking at my daughter anxiously, who shrugged and looked back at Adam.

"It's not Kaiya... but would you do it?" He almost pleaded, but my instinct for protecting my family kicked in, and wherever the danger was along with my family, I stay. Adam must have expected my decision. "Fine but you have to do what I ask otherwise." I nodded, suspicious, but Adam doesn't do things without reason.

"What is going on?" Joseph asked, voice hard.

"It doesn't matter, but you need to keep your eye out, Kaiya will fill you in on the way to class."

Kaiya looked at me, concentrating, and her eyes flashed, and that was when I noticed my hair was considerably shorter and blonde, and I had grown a few inches. I looked at Adam and he nodded an approval. Kaiya and Joseph promptly left after that.

"What is going on Adam?"

"Please, just don't freak out later, but do something for me. I know your shield has developed, can you mask our thoughts, but replace them with fake ones?" I narrowed my eyes at him, but did as he asked.

"Good, now we may as well not go to Stats as it's almost over. I doubt Mrs Jones noticed our absence anyway." I nodded, focusing on keeping my shield over my family, it was more difficult than I thought it'd be, but I was pretty new to it. I couldn't focus on much else, so I barely noticed anything else until lunch.

Adam had been glued to my side, answering for me in class, keeping a hold on my waist. There was some talk but everyone was convinced that he was going out with Samantha, as 'Marie' had gone home ill. I was the sister of Samantha and Joseph whose absence this morning Adam had explained.

I didn't realise how tense my family was until I reached the table we normally shared.

"What's wrong?" They all looked at each other warily, Adam squeezed my hand. So they were keeping something from me. I opened my mouth angrily to demand what was going on when Adam, let go of my hand and grabbed my waist dragging me out of the Canteen.

"Wha-" I began and tried to look back, but Adam turned my head away and quickly dragged me out of the room into the rainy outdoors.

"We are going home. Now." Adam instructed dragging me to my Audi and taking the keys from my pocket.

"No, not until you tell me what's going on." I said crossing my arms defiantly.

"When we get home." I shook my head, "Fine, remember before when I asked if you trusted me? What did you say?"

"Of course."

"Is that still the answer?" I nodded. "Okay, now get in the car." He jumped in and started it up. I sighed and reluctantly got in. We quickly reversed but as we did I saw two cars in the edges of my vision. I released a strangled cry from my throat, which caused Adam to drive faster, focusing on the road.

A huge Jeep, and a silver Volvo.

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**Like or not?**

**I think I will include other characters in the next chapter, like the Denali's are to the Cullens, or add them a bit later... We'll see.**

**Thanks to the suggestions given, I will try to include them, but is there anything else that springs to mind that you would like to see?**

**Oh and Importantly I will not be updating for at least 3 weeks as my exams have finally arrived :/**


	9. Protective

**~Thanks:**

**HarryPotterWWEFan7793 | **ThisRandomPerson **| chrissandraharkness | VampireGirl1495 | **omgomgomgomg **| cullenjolly | slips98 | ****lionnara**

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**AdamPOV**

_Oh God. Oh God. _Was the same continuous thought that ran through my head when I saw the three vampires walk in the classroom.

I was sat next to Sam, sorry _Samantha_. When the three Cullen's walked in, I knew who they were before they had to introduce themselves. The big curly haired one was Emmett, the short one who looked like she wanted to dance was Alice, and the stupid penny headed git was Edward.

I cleared my mind quickly remembering he could read minds, but his face reminded me of the saying '_the lights are on but nobody's home_'. Frankly I didn't care if he was insane; I wanted to rip him apart for what he did. Samantha tensed beside me, and then Samantha and I glared at Emmett and Alice, while they walked, their ginger brother trailing behind them, to their seats at the other side of the class.

My mind whirred into overdrive thinking of one thing, Bella. She isn't prepared for this, I don't know how she'd react. I had to get her out of here.

I jumped up without a second thought and fled the classroom, the teacher calling down the corridor after me, and Samantha's voice telling her I didn't feel well and that she'd go check if I was okay.

Samantha used her vampire speed to catch up to me.

"What's going on? Why didn't we know new vampires were coming?" Oh, he was worrying about that, yes that was best, I don't think Bella would want me to tell them.

"I know, I'm going to find Bella-" the bell rang so I added; "you go to class and tell Jack, and Lawrence, I'll also find Kaiya and Joseph." She nodded and went toward the direction of her next class where she would meet the others.

I practically ran to where Bella should be leaving her class, praying none of the Cullen's were in it, when I met Kaiya a short way away.

"Where are the other two?" She shrugs, and carries on to her next class but I have a brainwave and stop her, "Were there any new students in your class?"

"No why?" I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Come, I need to find I give you the signal, change her looks." I pulled her along without giving her chance to answer.

I quickly found her and Joseph and pulled them into an empty classroom.

"What?" She hissed at me, looking angry.

"Do you trust me?" I asked, hoping her answer would be yes, but if I knew her she wouldn't do what I asked her to.

"Of course."

"Will you go home with Kaiya?" I asked, I could already see the anxiousness building in her eyes.

"Why? What's wrong Kaiya?"

"It's not Kaiya... but would you do it?" I began to plead, I had to deal with things here but she had to leave, I couldn't worry about her or penny head might hear.

"What is going on?" Joseph asked, voice hard.

"It doesn't matter, but you need to keep your eye out, Kaiya will fill you in on the way to class."

I made a quick gesture with my fingers and Kaiya knew it was the signal and got to work, she made sure she still looked like a vampire, but changed her body shape slightly, like making her hips slightly wider and her bust larger, she made her hair shorter and a honey blonde and wade her legs longer. Perfect, they wouldn't recognise her now, at least not by sight. I nodded an approval at Kaiya and Joseph led her out the room to the next class. But now I had to keep her mind busy so she wouldn't hear the gossip about the 'Cullen's'.

"What is going on Adam?"

"Please, just don't freak out later, but do something for me. I know your shield has developed, can you mask our thoughts, but replace them with fake ones?" She looked at me suspiciously but then I saw her eyes focus and knew she was doing as I asked.

"Good, now we may as well not go to Stats as it's almost over. I doubt Mrs Jones noticed our absence anyway." She nodded and when the bell went, steered her to next class, keeping an arm around her, feeling the strong need to protect her. She obviously was busy with her shield as we passed the ones known as Rosalie and Jasper in the corridor and she didn't notice. I answered for her in lessons and covered for 'Marie's' absence and 'Zara's' appearance.

When it came to lunch, I could see that the family was worried, so I mouthed a 'don't say _anything_', and they looked at me in confusion but complied.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked as we reached the table, I moved my hand up to grab my hair, a sign that I was anxious but thought better of it, knowing Bella would pick it up, so I squeezed her hand to try and reassure her, but she must know something was going on, and opened her mouth to speak, but I then caught their scent. I changed my grasp from her hand to her waist, needing to get her out of there.

She tried to speak, but I felt the protective vampire side rising and had to get her and myself out of there, or it wouldn't be pretty. When we reached the car park I purposely kept her attention from the car she'd know anywhere and spoke to her.

"We are going home. Now." I told her and pulled her to her Audi and took the keys.

"No, not until you tell me what's going on." She said looking determined.

"When we get home." She disagreed, of course, stubborn Bella. "Fine, remember before when I asked if you trusted me? What did you say?"

"Of course."

"Is that still the answer?" She nodded. "Okay, now get in the car." I jumped in and started it up before she could disagree. I heard her sigh then slowly entered the car. As we were leaving though I heard her give a horrible cry and drove faster, focusing on the road, knowing I couldn't help her at the moment.

She stopped breathing and froze, when we arrived home, she still didn't react. I picked her up out the car and carried her into the house.

I set her down on the settee and put her head in my lap, running my fingers through her hair. I did this for a good half an hour before I decided to talk.

"Will you tell them?" I whispered, but it sounded like I was shouting in the quiet.

"I can't." She croaked.

"They need to know something." She shook her head and I sighed.

"Can we go somewhere? I can't go back there, not yet."

"Why not, a visit to the Houghton's is due. I get some flights now." I squeezed her hand before I slid out and went up to Bella's study, I was the only one allowed in there, no idea why but that was the way it was. I quickly called the others, as they should be out of the way of the Cullen's until we could explain to them to block their thoughts, then booked seven tickets to Pechora, Russia.

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**I know I said at least 3 weeks but the majority of this was copied and pasted anyway :D sorry but when I'm in the mood to write, I'm in the mood to write.**

**I hoped you like a bit more of Adams protectiveness.**

**Review please!**


	10. The Houghtons

**Thanks to:**

**HalloweenRocks14 | Debbie White | krazy1twilight | LoverOfDarkness13 | LindseyLee | lionnara **

**But a HUGE thanks to XxZOmBIE uNICoRNxX for all your amazing comments and help :)**

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**AdamPOV**

We landed in Pechora nine hours later, and hired a car to travel the 10 miles SE of the airport to the secluded spot where our closest 'family' lived.

When we arrived, the heads of the family, Aimee and Ash, were stood on their stone porch. Smiling as-per-usual.

I grinned and jumped out of one of the two land rovers we rented and proceeded to help Lorrie get the stuff out the boot.

"Bella, how are you?" Aimee said pulling her into a hug.

Lucy immediately came running out the house, her black hair flying behind her, "They're here!" she announced to the rest of her family and was quickly followed by her mate, Derek.

"How are you?" Derek grinned, grabbing Lorrie's hand and shaking it, talking in his Australian accent.

"Good thanks." He then pulled him in for a hug, the kind where they are all macho and slap each other's backs.

Terrence and Anne then appeared. Terrence went to join the other car where Lucy and Ash were already talking to Jack and Joanne, during recent events we gave up the whole punishment, and Sam and Kaiya.

After a quick catch up, as we haven't seen our cousins in almost 10 years, we entered their house.

"We have set up the usual rooms for you." Aimee smiled. As they only had four spare rooms, Bella had her own, Jack and Joanne shared, Sam and Kaiya shared, and Lawrence and I shared. "But... Bella do you mind sharing? We have a new addition to the family. Martiee come here and meet your cousins." She called then turned back to us, "She is a little shy, but was turned 25 or so years ago; she was wandering in the wilderness. Ash found her," she smiled lovingly up at her husband, who was stood behind her chair.

Then a young red haired woman entered the room and Lawrence gasped and jumped out of his chair, and I gawped along with him while everyone else looked on confusingly. The red haired woman also looked awed then ran into Lawrence's arms and sobbed.

"Adam, she is from his past right?" Joanne guessed.

"Yes. Martiee, his young bride." I told them. There was a moment of shock, then most of the people started exclaiming happily, giving them their 'belated' congratulations. I looked over at Bella and saw the pained look that she was trying to hide.

"Yes, yes, congratulations! But I think we should give them time to catch up. What do you think?" I said.

They quickly agreed and went off to do their own tasks, and Lorrie and Martiee went into the woods to do their own 'catching up'. When the room was almost empty, I walked over and knelt on the floor in front of Bella.

"How you holding up?" I asked softly.

"I just didn't expect it. I think one part of me is ecstatic he is back, another is in pain at his return and another part is filled with loathing towards him, and his new mate." She spat, but then her face crumpled and she clutched herself around the torso. I wanted to ask her how she knew he had a new mate, but I knew it wouldn't help anything.

"Well it sounds like someone needs the Swan family punishment, but first you need to tell them."

"I know, but..."

"But... what? You're not ready?" I asked.

"No, I just-"

"Oh tell us already!" Joanne's voice came from behind, Bella tensed but didn't move, but I spun round and glared at Joanne while growling. "What?" She said innocently, I dived for her, fuming. I must have surprised her as she didn't use her speed to run, and just as I threw her across the room, extreme pain flared in my right shoulder; the bite. I screamed and would have fallen to the ground if a huge form hadn't crashed into me and pinned me to the ground, causing my shoulder to scream out in protest.

"Jack, get off him!" Bella screeched. Jack reluctantly let me go and went to stand protectively by his sister who was looking shocked, along with everyone else, but Sam and Bella.

* * *

**BPOV**

I slowly walked over to Adam, ignoring his hisses of warning.

"Bella don't." Ash warned, but waved him off. When I was about two foot away, I knelt down so I was eye level with him.

"Adam?" His furious black eyes glimmered in recognition but he growled at me. I could hear Sam shifting behind me, without looking away from Adam; I spread my shield over Sam so I could hear what he wanted to say.

_Just be calm and patient with him. If this is caused from the bite, I don't know how long it'll take for him to snap out of it._

I closed my eyes in despair. If we hadn't come back to Forks, Adam wouldn't be bitten and would be his calm and normal self. I jumped slightly when I felt someone touch my face, my eyes flew open and I saw Adam's eyes directly in front of me.

"For god's sake, this wasn't your fault. Just stop blaming yourself, and don't deny it, I can read you like a book."

"Well that makes _someone_." Joanne said quietly. I took a deep breath, I felt a surge of... courage? Yes... and Adam smiled and nodded.

"No, there was someone else... while I was human." I said, my voice not betraying any emotion.

Aimee walked over and hugged me; everyone knew my past was a touchy subject.

"Well first shall we all sit down? I won't be able to do it with everyone looming over me." Everyone immediately assembled themselves on sofas, chairs and window seats, leaving me stood up by the fire and Adam in the woods, hunting to try and heal his inflamed shoulder, I would have liked him to stay but I knew his health was far more important.

I sighed and began the story. A little of what I remembered before I moved to Forks, what I remembered of my father and old friends. Then the Cullen's who I remembered in perfect clarity.

When I got to the part of him leaving me in the woods the room was in uproar, all kinds of profanities were being thrown around the room (mainly Joanne). Then from there till I was turned, as everyone knew the basics of what happened afterwards.

"Oh, you poor thing." Aimee cried clinging onto me for dear life. I patted her back.

"It was a long time ago."

"Not for us." Terry said solemnly.

"True, but Bella- out of curiosity- what was wrong with Adam before?" Ash asked, never one to forget things. I was about to answer, when I noticed he hasn't returned, and I had been talking for two hours.

"Erm, Sam why don't you tell them, I'm going to go and find out where Adam is." Without waiting for an answer I sped off, following his scent. I only travelled for about 5 minutes before I came across him.

"Oh sorry. I... was thinking." He apologised when I stepped into view.

"About what?"

"How weird it was before. I didn't even know that what I was doing was wrong or even out of character for me, and I vaguely remember me growling at you but then you looked in pain and I suppose I was back to normal, but only a few minutes ago I realised what I have done. Will you answer a question for me?"

I nodded reluctantly.

"Did the bite affect me mentally too?" I bit my lip, and he knew what it meant. "Oh well, I had hoped... but do you think it'll get worse?"

"It might, but whatever you do, I'll be here, and I'm sure the rest will too."

He smiled in thanks. "So I'm guessing Joanne used her potty mouth when you told the story."

"How did you guess?"

"Psychic. " He winked and pulled me up, "Well do you fancy sharing a room with me Miss? As I'm sure Lawrence and Martiee will be with each other."

"Why thank you sir, I'm sure it'll be delightful after I have beaten your fat bum home." I winked and sped off as he shouted "Cheat!" Behind me.

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**I hope you liked it! Argh next chapter will be some light heartedness as I'm even starting to get bored with all this seriousness, and if I am I can't imagine what you all must be feeling :P**

**New pictures are on my profile.**

**Reviews are most certainly welcome :) especially on the new pairing and characters... oh and Adam :L**


	11. Paintball

**Thanks to:**

**KaylaDuhh | vikkisecret42 | stephforever | lionnara | HalloweenRocks14 | Paramorelova101 | FiveStarReader | **

**It makes me so happy to add the same names in each chapter and even more to add new ones! ^^**

**I just thought we could take a glimpse into Joanne's mind and I'm sorry if I swear I can't remember but this is Joanne's awesome mind ;)**

* * *

**JoannePOV**

I hate my brother.

"You lost. You lost. Waaaaaay!" I ignored twin two's antics and mentally cursed Kaiya for my still orange hair. Suddenly Jack launched into my lap, so I growled and threw him across the lawn accidentally causing him to smash into Derek's new Lexus.

"Crap!" Jack and I shared a look and sped off into the woods not wanting a crazy Australian on our backs for killing his new car, oh well 6 days without annoying anyone (Adam doesn't count) was a record. Once we thought we were far enough away my borhter started again.

"You l-o-s-t! Looooos-"

"Finish that word and I'll knock your teeth out."

"Awww poor little Jo-Jo, your team lost and you can't accept it... hahaha." I glared at him and his bouncy pink hair.

"At least I'm not a walking orange with pink hair." I grumbled.

"Well I think it suits me actually," he started to strut around sticking his bum out. "I was thinking I should get a permanent tan and keep my hair pink, it's so chic." He them went and did what we called the 'flap', which caused me to burst out laughing. "See sis, I know how to lighten the mood." He flopped onto the ground.

"True," I have one more laugh then sobered up. "Jaaaack?" My brother groaned.

"What do you want _now_?" He sighed.

"What? How very dare you? You think that I want something?" He rolled onto his stomach and rested his chin in his hands.

"Okay then. Surprise me." He said, looking at me. It was silent for a while.

"Well I don't _want_-"

"See, look who was right. Sorry." He said after I shot him a look.

"I was thinking that with Adam going barmy, Lawrence going all lovey dovey and mum all emotionally unstable, we need to do something to cheer everyone up, and think of something to destroy Mr. Penny back in Forks." Twin two looked thoughtful for a minute.

"Hmm, I vote yes to the cheering up, no to the destroying of penny head unless we have talked to Bella about it first. No buts."

I crossed my arms and pouted.

"That is not going to work on me, I'm not 12 anymore, we were both 40 this year. Oh god, that makes me feel old."

"Well Bella is 88 in a few months... actually she is already. Adam is 85 in December. Kaiya was 73, Sam is 65, and Lorrie is the baby at 32."

"But according to the age gap Lol, you and I are the babies, there is a fair but of distance between 65 and 40, Sam and Kaiya could easily be our parents."

"Yuck, like I would want little miss arty and doctor as my parents." I grumbled.

"Stop being a baby... and run!" He shouted and ran to the east, I managed to get out of view just before Derek the bull charged into the area we were just sitting and Jack and I were his red flag.

"It was Joanne's fault!" Jack called.

"Traitor! But Derek it's the mould too wide to be me?" Derek snarled and chased after us, and I easily met up with Jack.

"To the shed?" He nodded and we sped up.

* * *

**BPOV**

"No luck catching them then?" I snickered as Derek ran up the stone steps empty handed.

"They're your children. Learn to control them." He growled which caused me to laugh.

"You're not allowed to talk to your aunt like that!" Aimee called.

"Technically I'm three years older than her!" He wined, as Ash appeared at the front door.

"Derek John Quinn Houghton, don't talk to your mother like that and your aunt is still 40 years older than you." He scolded him.

"Thank you Ash, but leave him be his new car was trashed by Jack and Joanne. Anyone would be annoyed." Ash sighed and sent Derek on his way.

"Do you have so much trouble?" Ash asked, sitting on the wall.

"With what in particular?" He shrugged. "Well as we were all between 16 and 18 when we changed, our immaturity levels are pretty much the same, I'm seen as the mom in most cases, sometimes a sister to Lawrence and a best friend to Adam, but they all listen to me and each other, but in decisions I have the final say."

"Ah, sounds calm."

"Ash? Honestly? Have you seen Jack and Joanne? Have you heard about what happened to Adam? Nothing that happens in the Swan family is calm."

"Fair point. Speaking of troubles, what are you going to do?" He asked looking at me concerned, which gave me a sense of déjà vu.

"You really helped me all those years ago you know. I was a newborn with another newborn, and there you were with your 200 years being all concerned for me." I smiled at him.

"Well what are brothers for?" He reached over and hugged me. "So answer my question please; it would make me feel more inclined to let you all leave."

"I hate your super memory sometimes you know." I sighed and looked over the amazing landscape of the snow capped mountains surrounded with thick green pine, calming. "Well there isn't much we can do but be there for Adam and hope Sam is able to find a cure in a book _somewhere_. As for my problem, I truly don't know, I want to go back there, take revenge and make him hurt, but I also love him so much I want him to be happy with her."

"Her?"

"Well I'm not sure if it was real or not, he looked more vampire-like than I remembered, but I had some sort of... vision, where he was there and another female I recognised, Valerie." After I had told everyone my past, Adam seemed to find the courage to tell everyone else his past.

"Really?" He exclaimed with wide eyes, his jaw almost becoming unhinged, "have you told him yet?" I opened my mouth to explain why when I noticed the door had just opened.

"No, she didn't. Why Bella?" Adam asked looking hurt.

"Adam, I'm sorry. With everything that has been going on and how I wasn't even sure it was real..."

"How long ago did you have your 'vision'." He spat, face angry but eyes quite hurt.

"I'm not going to tell you when you're like this, calm down then we'll talk." I said quietly.

"No." He ran up to me and grabbed me by the shoulders, Ash went to pull him off but I shook my head. I looked straight into Adam's eyes sternly.

"Really? Fine, it was shortly after Jacob bit into your shoulder." He snarled at me and shook me slightly.

"You have known all this time, and you didn't tell me?" He said, voice raising with every word.

"Would it have changed _anything_? Don't lie to me Adam. Now let-go-of-me." He quickly did, face changing from angry to hurt.

"I'm sorry." He whispered and ran into the woods. I went to run after him, but Lawrence who had emerged during the discussion, ready to step in stood in front of me.

"Leave him be. I'll go talk to him." He gave me a small smile and jogged off after his brother. I let out a gust of hair and leaned against the wall, but was quickly alert as I heard a movement in the woods, but quickly managed to get though the door before a sky blue paint ball hit me.

"Whoo paint ball!" Terry screamed adding a war cry, opening a closet filled with them. We quickly split up into pairs and picked our colours.

Jack and Joanne were sky blue. Ash and Aimee were yellow. Terry and Anne were green. Lucy and a now calm Derek were orange. Sam and Kaiya were purple. Martiee and I were pink, and if Lawrence and Adam returned they were red.

We all sped off and war began.

**sHssHs**

"It was great seeing you," I hugged Aimee and Ash tightly while the rest said their goodbyes, "And I'm sorry about the house."

"It's fine, we needed a little fun and the house was due a redecoration anyway, but you provided us with a good colour scheme."

"What rainbows?" Joanne snickered, and hugged Aimee, "We will see you soon Auntie Aimee."

"Well you better, I would like to see Martiee at least once a year."

"You will mom." Martiee came and smiled at her new parents, "Lawrence and I are going to alternate, six months there, six months here and we all come together at Christmas."

"Well I think that is a very good idea, what about you?" I said happily.

"Perfect."

"_Flight to Seattle at Gate C is boarding."_

"That's us. Bye." Adam marched up, shook Ash's hand and hugged Aimee, then grabbed my hand and towed me towards the gate.

"You ready to go back?" He asked.

"As ready as I can be...you?" I looked up at him, and he gave we a tight lipped smile.

"We'll see."

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**Soooo what did you think? You don't know how much I love all of your opinions :D**

**Just say what you like and what you didn't, e.g Joanne's POV was boring (even though I admit it was fun to write ;))**

**Review pleaaaassseee**

**Next chapter will be back to school... mwhuhahaha**


	12. Valerie

**Firstly thanks to all those who are still supporting this story and have begun to do so:**

**| mandamichelle | teamjacob101000 | LyssaL97 | Louisvuittonfreak | Goddess of rain101 | vikkisecret42 | . | lionnara | cjmobxnc |**

**Secondly sorry this chapter goes on a bit but I think people need to see what the Cullens think of what Edward did. Which leads to my last point, **shewolffreefaller **I appreciate that you think this story is really slow and that I am 'fucking with your emotions' but jeez if you want to say this don't be a freaking coward and log in so I can actually reply and find out why you decided to try and put me down.**

**But thanks to all of you who are still reading as it makes me ignore the negative stuff (which isn't constructive) and focus on writing. **

**So now I have had my little rant you can continue reading :D**

* * *

**EmPOV**

"You'll be late!" My mom called.

"We won't." Alice said as she skipped by jumping in the back of my jeep, Jasper following.

"Always trust Alice." He smirked.

"Rosie?" I called my beautiful wife, who came gliding out the house in a flowery maxi dress. "Dressing up are we?"

"If you're involved, why not?" She purred then giving me a kiss.

"Mmm, I like that answer." I grinned and pulled her into my jeep before that git came out the house.

"I'd take the anger way, but I feel exactly the same." Jasper said, gritting his teeth.

About two weeks ago, the man I decided to not call my brother anymore, told us what he did to the girl who loved him 70 years ago. Alice took all her anger out on him, and I gave him a good couple of punches after. Even Esme is annoyed with him, but she just showed how disappointed she was with him.

We all knew that we shouldn't have left, we had a hard enough time staying away from who we thought and still think of as a sister, but what was worse was that she died thinking none of us loved her. I wanted to kill him, but Carlisle didn't think it right and his new BFF kept coming to his aid.

Speaking of which she just came scuttling out the house dragging _him _along with her. I must say I didn't have too much of a problem with her as I do think she had a valid reason to leave her human mate, and didn't leave him in the middle of the forest.

He must have heard me as he looked ashamed. _Good, you better be ashamed. In fact so I don't kill you leave this family._

Jasper began to look smug then quickly turned disgusted. "He is now feeling sorry for himself."

I went to open the door to smack him, but before I could jump out my jeep, Rosalie was already there slapping him.

"Rosalie, leave him be." Valerie said, standing in between him and Rosalie. "Don't bother causing a fight, you know I'll win." She looked Rose down until my wife went storming back to the car. I shot a glare at Edward then turned, leaped back into my car and drove to the school.

"I'm guessing they're back." Alice muttered from the back seat. "Odd parts of the day have disappeared again."

"Well we should either try to avoid them or talk to them." Jasper suggested.

"I say talk, if they were so bad they would have tried to fight us or not go to a school full of humans." Rose instructed and left the car, everyone following.

Before, Rosalie was jealous of Bella in the sense that she was human and could lead a normal life, whereas she couldn't, but after she found out Bella was killed by a vampire, well that's what it looked like in the article, she felt horrible that she never told Bella that she was already thinking of her as a sister... so it made her extremely violent when she heard what Edward did to her. She loathed him and felt like Edward had done to Bella what Royce did to her, but not quite so violently. I sort of understood what she meant, but it might just be a girl thing.

I kissed her on the head. "Well done back there by the way." She gave me a tight smile, but stayed mute.

"I have two in the first lesson, but I can't see what they look like... Emmett and Jaz, you have three. Rose you have only one. I don't see anything bad happening. So we'll meet at lunch and see."

Alice skipped off to Art; Rosie gave me a quick kiss and went to Law, while Jasper and I went to Literature.

"So looking forward to your lesson with Edward later?" Jasper laughed.

"If Alice wasn't there...hang on, I know I have two in that class, as I did that first day." I muttered as I entered the classroom.

"Ah. Mr Cullen. Mr Hale. You made it with four seconds to spare." As she spoke the bell rang, I rolled my eyes, but she just sighed.

As I turned back to the class, skimming for the vampires I almost burst into laughter, a slender girl who looked very athletic had bouncy orange long curls which were obviously artificial due to her brown eyebrows, but the funnier sight was the vampire who was the same build but more muscled and had luminescent orange skin with bright pink curls. The girl glared at my grin but the guy looked none the wiser. The third vampire looked extremely normal compared to the other two. She had long auburn hair, and looked fairly tall, but she reminded me of someone...

"Emmett Cullen! Sit down!" Miss Cole screamed at me, I must have been staring for a while.

Through the class I learned that the normal one was called Martiee, the orange haired girl was Joanne and the pink haired one was Jack. I was sat directly behind Jack, and Rosie said we should try to talk to them. So half way through the lesson, I tapped him on the shoulder then with a grin, said "I love the look." I wasn't actually being too sarcastic, but he just looked at me for a few seconds then nodded his head coldly and turned back to the front.

Joanne whispered something too low for me to hear, but Jack ended up putting a firm hand on his sister's shoulder, I looked at Jasper who made gestures of violence. Oh.

The lesson seemed to take forever, but when it was finally over the three all ran off.

When I entered History with Alice, she told me what she learnt.

"There is eight of them, but the eighth is recent. Their names are Adam, Marie, Kaiya, Sam, Jack, Joanne, Lawrence, and the most recent, Martiee. From what I have heard Kaiya and Sam is a couple and people suspect that Marie and Adam are but no-one is sure. Marie, Sam and Lawrence are the Littlewoods, Jack and Joanne are the Maxwells, Adam and Kaiya are the Jones' and Martiee is a Houghton."

As she finished a blonde haired boy walked in dressed in a red polo with black jeans and a black leather jacket.

"That's Adam." Alice said in a normal voice. The boy looked in our direction and walked over to us.

"This seat taken?" He gestured to the chair next to Alice, she shook her head and shifted his chair as far away as the table would allow.

"So you are Alice and Emmett Cullen." It wasn't a question.

"And you are Adam Jones." Alice retorted.

"Correct. Now, if we are to live here in this town peacefully I need to sort a few things. One stay away from our family-"

"So you are the leader?" I piped up.

"No."

"So you cannot tell us what to do."

"Is that so? Well I'll go and talk to Carlisle at the hospital then, or see Esme at your home... I'm sure they'd agree." He looked at us daring us to disagree. "Good. So stay away from our family and we'll stay away from yours. Don't come near our home and we will return the favour. Lastly don't ask for a fight, our skills beat yours and you will lose." I snorted.

"I guess you haven't met Valerie then?" For some reason he winced, but quickly composed himself.

"I know enough."That surprised me, even we didn't find out her ability until a few years ago. Before I could begin to demand how he knew so much, he left the classroom, leaving the teacher annoyed but not surprised... I guess he does this a lot.

In the next lesson Rose or I didn't have anyone in our class, so we were eager to everyone- but Edward- at lunch so we could all share what we had found out.

"I got hostile glares when I tried to talk to them, especially that Joanne." Rosalie sniffed.

"Me too. Marie is very quiet. She does look familiar though." Alice said thoughtfully.

"Well I saw Sam, he reminded me of Carlisle." Valerie said, dumping her tray next to me so there was two spaces between her and Alice, who was the one most likely to restrain themselves in school.

Finally we saw all eight of them across the cafeteria.

"Kaiya is the one with long black curly hair, and her mate is Sam, the one with the short brown hair. Jack is the one with orange skin and pink hair; apparently pranks are famous in their household, and his sister is Joanne and she has the curly pink hair. Marie is the one with straight short blonde hair. Lawrence is the one with short black, and I recently heard that he is with the new member Martiee who has the long red hair. The last one is Adam he has the blonde hair." Alice told everyone, but at the mention of the last two names Valerie stiffened and sped out the cafeteria. Edward stared after her, confused then looked over at the group, and his eyes widened. He stood but Alice leaped over and grabbed his arm.

"Don't go over there. It'll cause a fight."

"But it's _him_." He whispered and tried to tug his arm out of Alice's grasp.

"Edward. Just shut up before I punch you." I muttered, but they must have heard what was going on because all eight of them turned to face us. Edward gasped, and then managed to release his hold on Alice, but as he took a step towards them, Adam pulled Marie towards him protectively and growled. Thankfully Edward turned around and went to see how Valerie was.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"No idea, but we have Gym next, so we can find out."

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**BPOV**

"Team A: Marie, Sam and Lawrence Littlewood, Jack and Joanne Maxwell, Martiee Houghton and Kaiya Jones. Team B: Edward, Alice and Emmett Cullen, Rosalie and Jasper Hale, Valerie Cooke and Adam Jones." Coach Brightwell called.

I looked at Adam, trying to figure out a way for him to be excluded from the game, but he shook his head with a small smile and went to the coach and after a quick explanation came back to our group smug.

"We just have to keep the numbers even by alternating players every ten minutes. Kaiya and I are off first." He went to stand at the edge of the dodge ball area with Kaiya.

I looked at my team and smiled. This was going to be fun.

The coach left after Lawrence gave him the idea that we could be trusted by ourselves, and entrusted Kaiya with refereeing. She blew the whistle and Jack, Joanne and Sam barrelled towards the balls, racing against Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie.

Joanne beat Rosalie hands down as we were playing vampire style, Sam was beaten by Jasper but Jack beat Emmett by half a second.

Jack used his super strength to chuck a ball at Rosalie's head and Alice's legs, it hit Rosalie but missed Alice, but it caused Emmett and Jasper to go berserk.

I spent a lot of time dodging balls but suddenly Adam called my name and threw two balls at me with a mischievous grin. I looked over at the other team and saw Valerie against Joanne, and Edward sulking at the back. I felt my face pull up in a smile, and while Valerie was distracted I hit her square in the face and Edward right in his 'area'.

This caused everyone in the room to laugh but Edward and Valerie, but when she turned round and saw Edward on the floor almost crying, she burst into laughter along with everyone else. It's a shame if she hadn't done what she did, I might have actually liked her.

When Adam finally got his turn he managed to hit Edward on the back of his head and Alice on her bum, but he seemed to be avoiding the vampire he once loved and she the same. When the game ended, even the Cullen's agreed that we won... but it was only due to my amazing shot.

Adam and I left as quickly as possible and met at the cars waiting for the others, but it seems they were waiting for us. When I saw all of them waiting at the car, I spun around and began the journey towards the changing rooms, but Adam stopped me and walked towards them... I couldn't leave him.

I sighed and walked towards them.

"So who is your leader?" Emmett asked.

"Didn't I warn you before?" Adam spat at Emmett.

"Adam. What did you do?" I asked exasperated. "We agreed, no talking to them."

"I'm sorry, but..." He looked slightly embarrassed and I rolled my eyes at him.

"It's Marie right?" Alice asked skipping towards me, ignoring Jaspers noise of protest.

"Yes..." I asked warily wondering what she was getting at, and feeling uncomfortable under her stare. But Valerie stepped forward and I shifted in front of Adam hissing at her.

"Adam, please." She said, voice desperate and clamping her hands in front of her.

"You don't have the right to plead." I glared at the red haired vampire, noticing certain features...

"Oh and I suppose you have the right to tell me what to do and to speak for him?"

"Yes she does. As-as... she's," he took a deep breath, "my mate." I looked at him, and saw the pain in his eyes, so I walked up to him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as I whispered too low for anyone but he to hear.

"Are you sure?"

"Are you?"

I gave a small nod, and turned back to them. I almost felt sorry for Valerie who looked very hurt, but I remembered the pain Adam felt when he told me his own story, and lost any pity.

"To answer your question Emmett McCarthy Cullen, I am their leader. Now leave before I make you. I don't care about exposure, I quickly lifted my shield over my eyes so Kaiya's gift wouldn't work, and they could still see my ruby eyes.

Most of them took a step back and left, but Edward lingered for a few more seconds staring at me, he opened his mouth to say something but decided against it and walked off after his siblings.

Shortly after that we were home and I turned on Adam.

"Why didn't you tell me Valerie had a sister?"

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**A picture of Valerie has been added :)**

**Please review as they make me grin :D**


	13. Secrets

**Thanks:**

roof **| Zerandomness | PV10 | lionnara | **Bookgirl1333not 1 ThisRandomPerson 

**Elphaba wannabe | FiveStarReader**

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**BPOV**

"What? She never mentioned a sister." Adam said with wide eyes.

"Bella... what are you getting at?" Lawrence asked.

"Valerie is Victoria's sister." I growled.

"Hang on. How do you know they aren't cousins or something?" Sam reasoned, but I couldn't tell them how I knew.

"Does it matter?"

"That's a good question. Why does it matter if she is related to her?" Adam scowled at me and crossed his arms.

"Because her sister, tried to kill me and I want to find her to return the favour." I turned around ready to go to the Cullen's house and demand where she is, but Joanne- of all people- stood in front of the door.

"Bella, I'm all for taking revenge, but calm down and think about this."

"Why?" I cried. "I never wanted _this_," I gestured to myself.

"You think I did?" Adam hissed, "If that justifies killing her, then I can kill you. She was obviously distraught about the fact her mate was killed. If you were still with Edward and he was killed you'd want to destroy who killed him."

"But I nev-"

"Listen to yourself. Did Victoria actually do anything when James was hunting you?" My silence was all he needed. "You never wanted to be a vampire and neither did most of us. All of us could actually be human and have a family if Kaiya hadn't have been caught in a car crash, or Sam hadn't been shot, or Jack and Joanne weren't caught in that collapsed house, or Lawrence in the middle of a war, or me after simply falling over." I looked down from the accusatory and shocked stares.

"What? Adam, you always said you were dying." Jack said sounding confused.

"Yes I lied." Adam sighed and went upstairs, leaving me and the rest of my family in the foyer. They all looked at me, puzzled.

"I've always had trouble with blood." I muttered, I then finally looked back up at them, meeting each of their eyes until all of them had left but Lawrence who told Martiee to wait upstairs for him. Once all the doors were shut, as we installed vampire sound proof walls so secrets can be kept, Lawrence slowly walked towards me but instead of stopping, opened the front door and ran out into the forest. I stayed frozen for a minute then followed.

"What else aren't you telling us?" Lawrence asked calmly when I met him about 2 miles south of the house.

"Who said I was keeping anything?" I said just as calmly, but inside my stomach was turning into many knots.

"Your face does, and your actions. When you go away you always come back different, Adam told me of the time you basically disappeared for two years, leaving him with Kaiya and a newborn Sam, then came back 'completely changed'. _What is going on_?" He took a step forward with those last four words until he was less than a step away from me.

"Lawrence, please just leave it alone." I pleaded, they can't know.

"Why?"

"I said leave it!" I growled and ran deep into the forest, thankfully he didn't follow.

When I came across a deer, I drained it without a second thought, and then drained another and another and another, but my thirst wasn't sated. Oh god! I wanted human blood, but I knew I couldn't without breaking the treaty. I slowly began to run towards Port Angeles weighing the pros and cons, but stopped when I heard something above me. I quickly put my physical shield around me and froze, mentally thanking Kaiya her abilities extended this far, in case it was-

"Marie," chirped the vampire who just dropped in front of me.

"Following me?" I scowled and walked past her.

"Nope, I was actually doing some shopping when I received a call from Alice about a vision of tomorrow paper; _Murder Massacre_. Which I'm guessing was going to be your work." She looked at me disgusted.

"How doesn't she know it wasn't you?" I glared at her.

"I've been off the human blood for years." She said snootily. "Unlike some. In fact how old _are _you?"

"Older than your 'human toy'."

Thankfully for her I had already removed my charged physical shield when I saw who it was; otherwise she would have been shocked right into the middle of Port Angeles, when she grabbed my throat and pushed me into a tree.

"Don't you dare." She growled in my ear, but I just smirked.

"What can't accept the truth?" I shoved her off me. "Didn't you realise that's what w- he felt like?" I started to panic wondering if she noticed my slip up, but thankfully she didn't.

"I had to! His little sister died because I was around him. What if I went hunting one day and he died?" She began to sob and sunk to the wet ground.

"You can't blame yourself for that, what you have to answer for is how you left. Besides, you leaving caused him to become a vampire and leave his parents alone." I leant heavily against the tree, "And for that I am sorry." I rubbed a hand across my face, tired.

"So it was you?" Valerie asked, through her sobs. I nodded in reply.

"Why?"

"I didn't pick him out of a group, I was still classed as a new born and he fell over... I regret it in the way that he just wanted to die after left him, but I don't in the way we would have never, become friends." I sighed, she would find out soon anyway.

"Ah, I thought not, it was convincing enough. But thank you for protecting him, I could tell he was hurt."

"He was protecting me too." I looked down at my hands.

"What do you mean?"

"Can I trust you?."

"Depends on what it is."

"If I tell you something, you _can't_ tell anyone, unless you are only with my family."

"Okay, I promise."

"Ever heard of an Isabella Swan?"

* * *

**AdamPOV**

Should I have been so hard on her? Yes she has her downsides, but that's her. We have been friends for so many years.

I rolled off my bed and walked onto my balcony into the light rain. Lawrence came back hours ago, but he said Bella ran off on him. When she's angry she'd normally hunt but he said she wasn't angry enough to hunt a human, but everyone was starting to worry, it doesn't take 11 hours to hunt. We were due back at school in two hours and she'd normally call if she was going to be out so long.

I walked out into the hall and down the stairs to the living room where Joanne was watching the tennis.

"Hey." She said and I sat next to her.

"Do you-"

"Bella's almost 90, she can look after herself."

"But-"

"Shhh." At first I thought she was trying to shut me up, until I noticed the TV was on mute and shouts could be heard from outside. Joanne and I ran out the front door just in time to see Bella come storming out the forest.

"Why are you lying to me?" She cried, looking upset. Almost immediately after her came Valerie.

"Bella, I'm not lying." Wait. Bella?

"What's going on?" Jack stuck his head out of his second floor bedroom.

"Why does she know your name?" Sam asked warily.

"I'm not going to tell anyone- luckily I keep my promises- but she won't listen to the truth." Valerie cried exasperated.

"What truth would that be?" I asked voice cold.

"Adam." She stopped and looked at me. "I'm-" I put a hand up to stop her.

"I just... don't want to hear it." I turned away from her, to see Bella looking at me. "Now come inside and tell us what is going on."

"Bella," Valerie began, but Bella closed her eyes.

"Thank you for keeping my secret but please leave."

Valerie nodded and quickly left, while I ignored her. Once she was out of earshot everyone began to shout.

"How does she know?"

"What took you so long?"

"Why did you tell her?"

"You didn't hurt anyone did you?"

"Why didn't you smack her?"

"What's wrong with you?"

I stayed silent and Bella just looked around.

"She knows because I told her. I hunted for a long time then talked to Valerie. I told her because I wanted to. No I didn't hurt anyone. Joanne smacking her without reason is a bit unorthodox. And Lawrence what is meant by what is 'wrong' with me?" She put her hands on her hips.

"You know." He looked at her meaningfully and I could see that it wasn't only I who looked confused.

"Just go and get ready for school. We leave in 30 minutes." She walked past us and into the house.

**sHssHs**

Bella hadn't spoken to us since this morning, so no-one really knows what happened between her and Valerie.

Jack and Joanne got bored through the day though, and decided that as Gym would be boring as we are playing with the humans today, so they wanted to have a laugh involving the Cullen's.

So during Lunch, they went to the local hardware store, then during Gym had fun... let's say I'm glad they remembered a camera.

They took Edwards Volvo and painted it orange then super glued hundred's of 1p coins on the frame, then sowed orange wool into his seats saying 'Eddie is my ginger b***h'.

After that they painted Emmett's jeep fuchsia, then painted the words 'Emmett Cullen's beauty night, follow me after school or call' then they put their home number which Sam found out, then stuck plastic diamonds all over the car and on the back stuck a very well photo shopped picture of Emmett dresses as a girl. Ha, that should take a hit on his masculinity.

So at the end of the day when all the Cullen's exited the building the looks on Edwards and Emmett's faces were priceless.

"Swans 2, Cullens 0," Joanne hissed into my ear.

I rolled my eyes at her, but laughed. "Don't think that they won't get you back."

I walked to my Audi but when I got there I saw Edward, mentally cursing anything I could think of.

"Edward." I nodded stonily.

"Marie," he said more softly.

"Can't you control your family?" He asked running a hand through his hair, mesmerising me like he did when he was human.

"I don't control them. They can do what they want, I'm not their boss." I muttered looking away, but looked up startled when he walked up to me, almost touching. So close I could smell him, his eyes so close I could make out every pigment. I began to breathe shallowly, and tried to back away but I ended up against my car. He then bent closer and whispered in my ear.

"I know it's you. I promise I'll prove it, and then show you I do still love you." That angered me, he thought he could walk all over me then drag me back. No way. So with his 'enchantment' broken I shoved him away.

"I don't know what you mean, but do that again and you will no longer be classed as a man." He gave me a crooked smile, and then walked off while saying.

"Not an angry kitten anymore."

I glared after him, I thought I could trust Valerie. Right on cue my phone bleeped saying I had a message.

_I keep my promises. I never told him, but I think you should._

_~V_

* * *

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	14. Racing

**Sorry this chapter is more of a filling in one but it drops a few hints ;)**

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**In the note Edward is in **_**italics **_**and Bella **_**italics underlined.**_

* * *

**BPOV**

"Okay, you have forty minutes. Start now." Mr Cheney smiled while tossing his dark dreadlocked hair over his shoulder, and sat at his desk almost oblivious to the glares he was receiving from the students because they were given a test. What the horror!

I tried to do the test, but I could feel a certain someone wearing two holes in the side of my head.

I have refused to be near him alone since the incident by my car last week. Oh he has tried, but it seems my threat of removing his man-hood kept him out of arms reach.

At least I only have two classes with him, Physics and Gym, and I never stayed long enough for him to talk to me.

Suddenly I felt a slight draught on my right hand, I looked down and a piece of paper had landed on the table. I looked at it blankly for a few minutes not immediately making out the words. When they did make sense I gritted my teeth, _Are you avoiding me? _Urgh.

_Obviously. _

_But why? Trying not to reveal the truth? :(_

_Are you a child now with your faces?_

_What's wrong with faces? And stop avoiding the question._

_Firstly, faces are childish. Secondly I'm not avoiding it, I'm not going to answer it._

_Fine, but you do know that argument doesn't make sense. Will you answer another question for me?_

_No._

_Okay. If you're not Isabella Swan why can't I read your mind?_

_Can't you read?_

_Perfectly well, but I was asking out of politeness not permission._

_Jerk._

_Come on. Why can't I read your mind?_

_Why are you such an idiot?_

_What are you trying to imply?_

_That you're an idiot._

_Why won't you answer my questions?_

_I just did. Duh._

_Now who's childish?_

_You._

_Denial. Did I tell you I knew Isabella Swan?_

_Technically no, but the way you practically molested me while saying I'm not Marie last week gave me some hints._

_She was human, and lived in this town. I loved her._

_Ah, so if she isn't with you now... was it like your buddy Valerie using Adam as her human toy?_ As he read it I could hear a growl and I noticed some of the students around him look around alarmed, but thankfully not noticing the source.

_Don't you dare say that. It was never like that._

_Ah vampires like you just can't help but lie. Oh and for your information I knew Isabella very well. Also she isn't dead._

_Why are you telling me this? She wouldn't want me to know. She'd hate my guts._

_Did I say she didn't hate your guts? And I'm telling you, as we are basically twins._

_Well where is she?_

_I'm not going to tell you am I? Wow you are an idiot._

Before he could write back, the bell rang and I shot out of the classroom towards Gym, but he had to follow and grab me in the middle of the corridor.

"Tell me." He hissed, oblivious to the people gawking at us in the silent corridor.

"Why should I? You don't even have the right to know _anything_." I stared him down, then as he let go, I pulled his head down to my level and hissed in his ear. "She feels like a human toy." Then shoved him away and walked off to the next lesson.

Maybe what happened after this point could have been avoided if I believed what Valerie had told me and seen the look on Edwards face as I walked away.

* * *

**EPOV**

When I talked to Marie, I wasn't sure if she was my Bella or not. It's just their similarities are uncanny. Her smell is just the vampire version, she stumbles slightly over nothing, I can't read her mind. Although there were differences to the one I remember, most obvious she was a vampire, she was slightly taller, her hair was blonde, some of the features were slightly off, and her eyes were filled with so much pain, but every now and then I could see happiness when she was with her family.

Now that I make that list I can see how ridiculous this sounds, who says it is her? But when I was with her I felt... whole like I did all those years ago.

Yet she told me Bella is alive, and I truly did love her, but I think I'm falling for Marie too. It isn't fair to Bella. I need to stay away from Marie.

* * *

**BPOV**

"Come on Bella. Stop ignoring me." Valerie whined. It was just my luck that I was paired with her in doubles tennis and we were playing against Lorrie and Jack.

"I'm not ignoring you." I mumbled, tapping the ball towards Jack.

"But-" She quickly ducked as Jack hit the ball too hard.

"Jack!" I scolded him glancing at the teacher who was too busy with Tyler the 4th who couldn't hit a ball to save his life.

"Sorry." He looked sheepish then began to chat about Cars with Lorrie. I glanced at Valerie and saw her huff then fiddle with the ends of her hair.

"Fine! What do you want to tell me?" I growled, damn I was curious now.

"Well I don't want to tell you anything as it didn't work out too well last time... Okay two things, can you try to convince Adam to talk to me, even just for 5 minutes?" I wanted to say no, but then the image of her last week looking in so much pain at what I said, and I could understand her leaving for that reason although it doesn't mean I accept it... but then again Edward tried to basically do the same thing.

"I'll think about it."

"Thank you, that's all I want." She seemed more relaxed now, and hit the ball into jacks face as he wasn't paying attention. "Secondly, Carlisle and Esme would like to know if you would like to come over tonight?" I bit my lip, I would love to see them, but they left me all the same.

"Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow? It'll be a Friday." I offered needing time to think about it.

"Sure. You know Alice can't see you or Adam in her visions." She said nonchalantly.

"Really? I can understand myself but not Adam..."

"Well she sometimes can't see the rest of your family, I don't know why. It annoys her like it does with the wolves." She chuckled.

"Oh crap." I face palmed myself, "I forgot. I won't be able to come over tomorrow; family business."

"You mean wolf business? It's obvious as you remembered when I mentioned them." I shook my head trying to think of a different subject.

"So how many of the Cullen's know about your sister?" I whispered, satisfied to see she froze and horror flashed across her face.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb please. I'm just curious."

"None of them." She hit the next ball back with more force.

"Not even mind invader?" That caused her a small smile but she shook her head. "How?"

"I don't know. For some reason he can't see thoughts I don't want to share."

"Odd."

"But how do you know? Only Victoria and... Why would-" I glared at her warning her to not say anything else and gestured to my family, and her mouth opened in shock. "And they do not know?"

"No, and I don't intend on them knowing. They don't even believe I can fight very well."

"You know having so many secrets will not end well." She said disapprovingly.

"A different secret from different people and it's all with good intentions. So don't judge me when you are not aware of the whole situation." I walked off to the changing rooms, dumping my racket on the way.

**sHssHs**

"Right, I'm off. I'll be back in an hour." I put on my riding jacket while humming to 'Born to be Wild' from my old iPod.

"What if you're not back?" Joanne asked, sour faced from the Living Room doorway.

"Have a party." I almost laughed at everyone's irritated look. "I will be, but if I don't contact you in two hours feel free to go to the border and ask the wolves. If something happens Sam makes the final decisions, and if what happened doesn't have anything to do with the wolves, just go to the Cullen's." I smiled at them and stepped out into the cold air. Then sped to my bike, just as I started it up Adam appeared beside me.

"I thought we agreed I looked after them if you leave again." I sighed and rubbed my temples.

"Adam, what if your shoulder affects you while you are making a decision? Beside Sam just has the final vote. You know he'll do what's right."

"I know, sorry." I couldn't help but smile at him, and his sheepish grin.

"Don't be. See you in an hour if Jacob hasn't eaten me!" I laughed and sped off.

I met him on the dirt lane where I used to ride my motorbike with him shortly before he changed and I became a vampire.

"Bella." He nodded.

"Come on Jake, we agreed to meet up to try and make peace between the shifters and my family." I looked up at him pleadingly.

"But you stink." I sighed, that was such a Jacob thing.

"Well I can say the same about you." He grinned.

"Okay, okay. At least I know you're trying the animal blood. Your eyes are orange."

"Yep, they should be gold again in a few weeks. Okay, back to business. First one to race _around _Forks and get back to this spot first on their bike, wins." He grinned.

"Agreed. 3... 2... 1..."

"Go!" Then we sped off.

**sHssHs**

"That's Taka-Aki eating a fish." I scrunched my face up at him.

"You're nuts, is it something in the wolf gene that makes you see things? I just see it as a blob of stars."

"Nah, vampires are just stupid." He laughed, but I sighed.

"I have to be going, I've already been gone 4 hours longer than I said I would- you're lucky my phone didn't break when you decided to crash into me as you're a sore loser- otherwise my family would be going brazil nuts."

"Brazil nuts?"

"Yeah, they're bigger, so they taste nuttier." He looked at me sceptically for a minute, as if he was questioning my sanity, but then shook his head.

"Okay. Just remember no matter what you're not allowed on La Push land."

"Yes sir." I gave him a salute, to which he rolled his eyes at, "And if we see Victoria again I'll let you know."

"Wait what? _Again_?"

"Oh did I not tell you? She was wandering around while you went on that week away."

"You haven't seen her since?"

"Nope."

I blew out a gust of air. "Okay thanks. I have to get back, but it was nice to try and pretend we were both still human."

"Try being the operative word, but you still know that it doesn't change anything between the vampires and wolves."

"I know. Bye Jake." I waved as I walked to my bike which needed a complete remodel and good clean. Why doesn't it rain when you actually want it to?

* * *

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	15. The Cullens

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* * *

******BPOV**

"Why?" Adam whined while I tugged his foot.

"I don't want to go either, but the rest of the family would like to meet Carlisle and Esme. So suck it up and get changed." He groaned and shuffled to his bathroom grabbing some clean clothes on the way, as the boys were quad-biking in the mud all day.

"Aunt Bella?" Martiee called, so I went down to the floor below where Lawrence, Martiee, Jack and Joanne share a floor.

"Yes hun."

"Do you think it's a good idea going to see them?" She asked looking concerned.

"Why?"

"I don't know really, aside from the obvious of you and Edward and Adam and Valerie, I just have a bad feeling..." I sighed, ___great another thing to worry about_.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, if the Cullen's are the problem then we can sort that out, and if it's something else then Carlisle is if anyone would probably help." She pursed her lips and nodded going back into her room.

I next went into the basement and saw Jack, Joanne, Kaiya and Sam playing ___Super_ ___Mario Brothers _on the old Wii.

"Shouldn't you all be getting ready? You have three minutes or your cars will be banned for a fortnight. That goes for everyone so if you see someone who isn't doing what they are supposed to tell them." They sped off quickly.

It seems the threat did pass around as everyone was ready and outside the house with two seconds to spare.

Jack was taking his mustang with Joanne and Adam. Lawrence was taking his new eagle (but it looks exactly the same), with Martiee, Kaiya and Sam, and I was taking my bike, my newer one as the one I made with Jake still needed a lot of repairing from yesterday night.

I waited for the others to leave before I did, otherwise I'd have to drive slowly- 80mph ___is _slow, so I'm not there first.

I receive a text message I opened it up and read- ___Isabella you have one week to get here or the deal is broken. _Well now isn't the perfect time to go, so I deleted it, let the deal break.

As I sat on my bike thunder began and I saw lightening hovering around the edges of town. It looked beautiful... but weirdly frightening. It reminded me of the night I woke up; it was thunder and lightning then too. I was lying at an awkward angle over a tree root and breathing heavily, still startled over the pain, barely noticing the burn in my throat, and just looking up at the flashing sky, finding it odd how something so natural can decide to be vengeful or simply pass without much damage, like it has a conscience- I know I was delirious that day- and as I thought that a Stella Artois beer cap fell onto my chest, I remember thinking how odd it was that a beer cap was in the middle of the forest, but then hunters had to wander by at the wrong moment... now that I think about it the beer caps, well that particular type, seem to turn up in the oddest places-

I was startled to hear my phone ring, and saw the caller ID say Adam, then picked it up, confused as the why he'd want to call me.

"Hello?"

"___Where are you?"_

"What? Why?"

"___We've been here for 5 minutes."_

"Really? Oh I lost track of time. I'll be there in a few." Hmm I need to stop doing that, anyone could sneak up on me... I ended the call and as I went to turn the key to start my bike up I saw a Stella Artois cap squarely in the middle of the tank. I looked around for someone, I knew it wasn't there before; I spread my shield out to check if I could catch anyone underneath it but no-one.

Slightly scared, I rode off, enjoying the spray my bike created from the rain, even though I was already soaked.

When I sped into the small meadow outside their house, 5 minutes later due to an accident on the edges of town, I almost gasped at how identical it was to when I saw it last, but it also made me want to leave, as it reminded me of when I went to see it all those years ago and the pure emptiness of it.

"Marie, where have you been?" Lorrie said suspiciously.

"There was an accident outside town, were you all reckless?" I asked, strolling through the mud, my blonde hair and clothes dripping wet.

"No." Adam said from behind me.

"What are you doing there?"

"I was about to go and find you, as you clearly have trouble looking after yourself." I raised an eyebrow at him and lifted my palm up.

"Wanna bet?" I cocked my head to the side with a smirk.

"No thank you; you'll shock me to Europe." He skirted past me and up the porch steps to where the rest of the family was gathered.

"Why are you all out here?" I asked even though the inside of my head was tensing up in nervousness, I quickly strengthened the mental shield around my family, making sure no nosey mind readers would get curious, I just had to remember no to take their abilities, that was my biggest secret, even my family didn't know.

"Well- erm... we didn't want to go in without you?" Adam mumbled, I sighed. The others didn't like the Cullen's because of what they did to me... it's not exactly fair but I can't do anything about it right this second.

I looked at them all disapprovingly especially Sam, he had impeccable manners. After bracing myself I walked to the door and knocked, not surprised when it opened before I had finished the first knock.

"Carlisle, it's a pleasure to meet you." I said formally, keeping a hand clenched behind my back to keep me sane, and not scream at the extremely handsome blonde doctor.

"Thank you, Marie. So you are the leader of your coven?"

"Yes, and you are the leader of your own." He nodded, and there was a moment of awkward silence before anyone spoke.

"Are you going to invite us in or not?" Joanne asked, I turned my head and hissed at her.

"Manners, Joanne."

"Well it's those you should me telling off then." She said smarmily. I pinched the bridge of my nose; it wouldn't be good for me to lose my temper here and now. So I mouthed at her ___You're in trouble_, then turned back to Carlisle who was chuckling.

"No she is right, I have been appallingly impolite. Come in." He opened the door wider and stood back so we could enter. I entered first, and noticed how the inside was the same too, maybe a new painting or something, but nothing substantial.

After observing the decor, I saw Esme who was smiling warmly but her eyes held so much sorrow, it would be impossible to miss so I looked away, noticing Alice and Jasper, Rosalie and Emmet and Martiee. No Edward, thank god.

Esme gestured for us all to sit down. Alice ended up sat in Jasper's lap, likewise with Kaiya and Sam. Due to the lack of seating, Adam and I ended up standing.

"So I believe you all know our family, but I'm afraid I can't say the same about yours."

"Well obviously I'm Marie. That is Adam and he is my eldest son. Then there was Kaiya and her mate Sam. Jack and Joanne are actually twins, but are very opposite. Lastly is Lawrence and his mate Martiee." I pointed each one out as I mentioned them, I saw Carlisle look questioningly at the two twins, but thankfully the dyes weren't as luminous as they once were, Joanne simply looked like a red head and Jack's hair was almost plum but the orange skin wasn't quite right yet.

"That's great, but do any of you have any abilities?" I looked at him suspiciously, so he hastily added, "Just as I have heard you all know my families."

"Not Valerie's." Sam stated. Carlisle looked thoughtful for a minute, but Rosalie spoke up.

"Who cares? For all we know you could be plotting to destroy us all, we don't know anything about you but your names yet you seem to know everything about us!" She fumed, Martiee laughed.

"Ah Blondie has a temper." Lawrence poked her slightly but didn't hide the smile on his face.

"Believe me if we wanted to destroy you we would have done so by now. Although why we don't I don't quite know." Adam muttered.

"Don't act like that Adam." Kaiya scolded him.

"How about we don't tell you Valerie's gift and you don't have to tell us one of yours." Emmett suggested, Jasper looked over at his brother amused.

"Wow, Emmett has a voice of reason, who ever saw that coming?"

"I did." Alice piped up grinning.

"Back to the subject... Emmett that is a good idea. Okay, Adam, Kaiya go for it." I bit my lip, hating to deceive the Cullen family, but they'll freak when they hear Lawrence's gift, and I can't tell them mine.

"Well I can change my appearance." Kaiya said, demonstrated by changing her appearance into Alice. I noticed how she said ___her_appearance not lying but avoiding the whole truth.

"I can see anyone's past with a touch." Adam said quietly, hearing the inevitable gasps from the Cullen's.

"So you are like Aro then?" Carlisle asked shocked.

"No," he growled, "I'm nothing like him, I don't even see thoughts, I see actions." He took a step towards Carlisle, but thankfully I was close to him and grabbed his wrist.

"Calm down Adam, think through it." He ignored me so I yanked on his arm and pulled him to face me.

"What?" He hissed, breathing heavy.

"Calm down or leave, I can't have you hurting anyone." I stared into his eyes, waiting for the rage to die down. I could see him struggle, and it died down slightly but not by much. "Okay, we'll leave then." Before anyone could get ready to leave, Adam sped off.

"Lawrence, can you and Jack go after him, he might hurt someone in this state." I sighed and leant against the wall.

"Sure, but you know he only listens to you." Jack said as he left with Lorrie.

"May I ask what that was about? It wasn't quite... normal for a vampire." Carlisle inquired, eyes interested.

"Do you read a lot?" Sam asked.

"Well I have read a fair amount but not everything."

"Have you ever come across a book about the relationship between ___Vampire and Other Beings_ by Dakroth?"

"The name does ring a bell but I haven't read it."

"Well that will be because there are only two copies in the world, I have one and the Volturi have the other. It says many things, for example how the feud between vampires and other races began, but that is for another time. In relevance to the question you ask, if a vampire receives a bite from a shape shifter, they are basically poisoned and the werewolf saliva starts to destroy all the venom in that particular being."

"But venom is what heals our wounds, let alone keeps our bodies alive."

"Indeed, but there is a cure... sort of. If the venom of the vampires sire is given from the wound the vampire can survive, but if not given almost immediately the vampire will suffer side effects- insanity being one of them. Thankfully Adam isn't too bad, he just suffers periods of extreme anger but it's very difficult to reason with him."

"Oh my goodness, the poor boy." Esme gasped. I looked over at Valerie whose face was rid of any emotion and she was staring into space.

"Valerie?" Alice asked, while rubbing her shoulder. Valerie looked over to me and I got the feeling she was trying to tell me something, so I extended my shield over her.

___Thank you for saving him, I owe you much._

"No you don't it was my fault it happened in the first place." I whispered. Valerie looked shocked, whereas the rest of the Cullen's looked confused.

"Did you just read my mind?" I bit my lip then nodded slightly, and almost jumped when Edward appeared behind his parents.

"Oh Eddie appears!" Rosalie scoffed looking furious, whereas 'Eddie' ignored her.

"You can read minds too?"

"What has it got to do with you? And it's not in the way yours works." I growled, anger building at his mere presence.

"I want you to tell me where she is."

"Bit off topic don't you think?" I glared.

"Where who is?" Emmett asked, looking round at everyone.

"It doesn't matter," I replied then turned back to Edward, "Why can't you leave anything alone? You but in, do what you want not taking into account anything else."

"Marie." Kaiya warned.

"Nah, let her rant." Joanne said, leaning back in her chair, "it's entertaining."

"You are still in trouble from before missy, so keep quiet unless you want your car taken away." She shut up after that.

"Whoooooo?" Emmett whined.

"It doesn't matter." I ground my teeth.

"But-"

"Bella." Alice whispered her head in her hands. "Marie knows where Bella is." The room fell completely silent. So everyone jumped when my phone began to ring. I took a deep breath and saw the Caller ID as Jake.

"Jacob?"

"___Yeah, I can't take long but basically I went to your house but you weren't there then I remembered what you said last night so I called you to warn you. She's here. We just saw her on the border but we lost her."_

"Okay Jacob thanks." I quickly hung up, and then dialled Lawrence.

"Marie, what's going on?" Sam asked, pointedly looked at Valerie and he must have put two-and-two together.

"___Hello?"_

"Lawrence, tell me you are with Adam and Jack." I crossed my fingers.

"___No, we lost Adam so we split up."_

"Crap. Okay come straight back to the Cullen's house now."

"___What is going on?"_

"Victoria is here." Then I hung up.

* * *

******I do hope you liked it as this was the fourth draft, I have changed it a lot since the first. In the next chapter there might be a fight scene between Bella and Victoria... but will she get Victoria? ;) and when will the Cullen's find out who Marie actually is?**

******Please review!**


	16. Victoria

**I won't update till the weekend, it is only because I had today and yesterday to do anything but that's all for this week :/ oh well it's not too bad :D**

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**BPOV**

I quickly tried to phone Jack, but then groaned when Joanne pointed out that he left it at home.

"Victoria?" Carlisle exclaimed jumping up and began to pace. "What can we do?"

"Stay here. I'm going to find Adam and Jack, and then come back here."

"You aren't going by yourself." Joanne objected jumping up too.

"I agree with Joanne, your ability may protect you from any harm but you don't know what she's planned." Sam reasoned.

"I'll be fine."

"But you know your emotions affect your shields." Kaiya said.

"Shields?" Rosalie asked.

"Doesn't matter but I'm going, if I can't find either of them in thirty minutes or if Lorrie doesn't come back, you are welcome to leave but split into three groups- one group here and two in the woods. Sam you are in charge _if _this happens." I looked at the disapproving and worried faces in the room then smiled. "Good, remember half an hour." I then walked out the door.

Just as I reached the fringe of the woods, Valerie came out and stood in front of me.

"I'm coming, and before you say no hear me out. Everyone in that room knows you won't come back until you have killed Victoria, so if you find the two of them, how are you going to keep them safe until they get here? Because she will probably clear off if you bring them here. So when you find them I will bring them here."

"But what makes you think you will be able to do so?"

"Well my ability. It's subtle but I can win every fight, it's almost like I know what people are going to do just before they do, like how Victoria knows how someone is going to go for her a split second before they do, her talent is evasion, but you knew this."

"Of course I did. You don't go to fight someone if you don't know anything about them. For example I wasn't sure about you two, I had just been told she had a sister so I looked out for it. Anyway, we've wasted too much time."

I ran around her and sped into the forest following the scents, and built up a thick physical and mental shield around myself, annoyed I could only do this mentally for Valerie as my physical one doesn't stretch very far, but then we found where they split off.

"Okay you follow Lawrence's, to check if he is okay and bring him back to the house. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. After that follow my scent, or Jacks, and we'll take it from there." She nodded and took the left scent; I then followed the one that was right. I sped along it for a few minutes, not finding anything, suddenly I smelt something that had cut across the path I was taking about a minute ago, and it was definitely vampire.

I slowed down, being cautious, and focusing on my sense of smell and hearing senses as they'd be the first to alert me if someone was close.

A clap of thunder echoed overhead accompanied with a flash of lightening, which illuminated the leafy scene oddly, like it belonged in a horror film. Vampires- check. Bad weather- check. Missing people- check. Mysterious person nearby- check.

The thunder must have distracted me, because suddenly someone tried to grab me from behind, but thankfully my shield worked and flew them 60 metres away and though and old oak. I sped over to them, unsurprised to find it a newborn. One of Victoria's pawns. I quickly decapitated them and started up a fire.

"Aww Victoria. Not doing the job yourself? Weak." I called, and then spun when I heard a growl behind me.

"No, just checking your shields were up. I have been following you for months, finding stuff about you and your little family."

"Where are Jack and Adam?" I growled slipping into a hunting crouch, anger rising when she merely laughed.

"Jack found Adam a while ago; they are many miles away hunting." I breathed a small sigh of relief. "You vegetarians, you are weak. You subject yourself to feeding off mere animals then make bonds with other vampires and pretend to be _family,_" she sneered. "Although, I once thought you and I could become nomads, after I had killed Edward. As it'd hurt you too, but then I spied on him for a bit and realised it would hurt more if I killed you; for him, and your father." I straightened and blinked, my head telling me she was just using this to distract me, but everything else reeling at the fact he was still alive, and if he was that could only mean one thing...

"Hello Bella." I turned slightly to my left, keeping Victoria in my sights, and then saw the figure who was dressed in simple black jeans and jacket, with his curly brown hair fully restored, thanks to the vampire part, restoring him to handsomeness. There was still the beer belly I remembered, but it was almost nonexistent, and almost impossible to notice unless you were looking for it. When I finally looked directly into his face, I was surprised to see him with gold eyes set into his perfect white skin, but they looked almost... blank.

"Dad?" I whispered, feeling like a little girl again.

"Yes." He smiled slightly, and I ran up to hug him, but suddenly I realised what was going on. My father wouldn't lure me into a trap, so I turned back to Victoria, alarmed to realise that my physical shield had dropped, so I quickly pulled it up.

"I love family reunions." Victoria smiled taking a step towards me, but she quickly dropped the smile, "You know what, I lie. I loathe them." She gestured to someone I didn't notice, and then suddenly my father was in pieces and on fire. I opened my mouth to exclaim loudly but a weak strangled sound came out.

I dived for the three vampires and immediately destroyed them, setting up a separate pyre, but just after I tossed the second body in I was grabbed behind by the arms, but the person wasn't shocked, and I tried to return my physical shield but I kept thinking about the vampire now turning to ash.

"Come now Bella. You thought he was dead anyway." She whispered into my ear while I let out a sob. She tore the skin at my neck slightly causing it to sting. "Well I'll put you out of your misery soon enough. Just remember this is for my James." She growled then wrapped her mouth around my shoulder and pulled it away from my body. I screamed, momentarily forgetting about my father, and clutched the area where my left arm once was.

"You bitch." I growled and dived for her. She sped to the left but I managed to sink my teeth into her hand and pulled it off. She howled and looked surprised.

"But you can't fight."

"Well you don't know everything about me Victoria." I growled and dived for her, my arm reaching around her neck, and just before I sunk my teeth into her neck, she hissed something.

"Well I know something about you, something you obviously don't remember." Well that piqued my interest, so I kept tight a tight hold of her, and hissed just as quietly.

"This won't change my decision to rip you apart, but go on."

"Russia, 68 years ago. Was roughly the same you changed Adam wasn't it?"

"What has this got to do with anything?" I growled.

"In that meadow he told you how his little sister was killed by a vampire. I know the vampire who did it." She was silent for a few seconds so I tugged her neck.

"Tell me."

"Are you sure?"

"Tell me now Victoria and I'll make your passing quick."

"You, Isabella Swan. You are the reason Adam lost his love and his family, and then lost his humanity." I froze trying to remember, but came up blank.

"You lie, I would remember."

"But you don't, and you did... think. Couldn't you taste the blood of pure innocence? I'll admit I'm not as evil to murder a child, but I've heard of those who have, they say it's delightful." I must have loosened my grip enough because she leaped up and loomed over me. "Remember her, she had long straight blonde hair that seemed almost gold, the rosy cheeks, her scream as she saw her worst fears then you broke her neck and ended it. You shouldn't have failed to hunt for a few months, it causes a vampire to go mad with thirst and lose any sense of rationality." She pulled me up and practically dragged me along while I tried to remember this moment in time I would have thought would have been branded into my memory. My phone rang a few times on the way but I didn't make an effort to answer if and Victoria ignored it.

She stopped when we reached the edge of a town, Seattle I think.

"So Bella, we are obviously quite a way from your family due to the fact you look like Bella as opposed to 'Marie'"

"You lied about Adam's sister. I wouldn't." I breathed, but she shrugged.

"Deny it all you want, make a visit to Aro, and get him to check your memories. In fact you'll be dead... soon enough anyway."

"Just kill me will you, save me the job. I promised Adam I'd kill the person who killed his sister and if I did it, well then I need to be dead." I looked into her eyes pleadingly.

"You think he doesn't love you?"

"Who?"

"Edward. He left because he didn't want you to get hurt, do you think I'd be doing this if he didn't? I would just go after him."

"He left because I was his human toy."

"If you say so. I should attach you to a lie detector so you can realise what an idiot you are, but if I'm honest I couldn't care less. Back to business, you are going to go on a killing spree."

"No." I growled and yanked myself away from her, but her grip was too tight.

"Well if you don't do it now, we'll wait, your body will need blood soon to repair itself, and then maybe you can kill another child." She smirked.

"Answer me honestly. Are you the devil in vampire form?"

"No, I just use my vampire side, which is a demon of the earth."

"Read many bibles?" She laughed, tilting her fiery red hair back.

"If it'd help the situation, sure, but it won't so don't kid yourself."

"Why don't you leave and we can get back to killing each other in a few months?" I sighed, already feeling the bloodlust creep up and knowing I needed to get out of here.

"Because I want to give you reason for your family to be deeply ashamed of you and for you to feel extremely guilty about something else."

"Why go to such extremes?"

"Because you are the reason my mate is dead. He turned me and gave me hope and loved me. My sister and I were orphans due to a plague but we weren't infected. He turned my sister because I couldn't bear to leave her, but she left anyway. At least she will be happy if she can be with that Adam again."

"You actually care? If you did, why didn't you try to stop me killing his sister?"

"Of course I do. And I couldn't stop you because I wasn't there when it happened. I followed your scent.

"Right..." I said still sceptical.

"So are you feeling thirsty yet?"

"Nope, perfectly quenched." I replied even though the burning was getting really uncomfortable.

"Well I'll make you, I hope you don't mind living with no hands. Well you might have both if your coven hasn't forgotten about you and reattach it." She grinned showing all her teeth, but by this time I had enough of her games and flipped her so she landed on the back and this pulled her up and threw her into the woods which had the effect of a drill, due to the way I threw her, while ripping the other arm off which was basically impossible if you didn't have teeth, unless you had practised it.

When I walked up to her she looked slightly scared.

"But only the Volturi know that move."

"You pick up a few things, besides it's not that hard."

She looked around, and then asked calmly. "How's the shield?" I wasn't going to tell her my physical shield wasn't up and wouldn't be anytime soon sue to the fact I needed blood.

"Fine."

"You should hope so." She gestured around and that was when I saw, we were surrounded by newborns. There were maybe 24 or so. She snatched her arm out of my hand. "When James tried to kill you, did I actually do anything? Try to kill your father? Try to kill your mother in Florida? No. Well now I will do something." She sneered and then slipped through the newborn lines.

I took a deep breath; I've only fought with two ands and a shield. Well it's time to put my training to good use. I slipped into a crouch and then all the newborns charged at me.

I quickly disposed of three, and slipped through the clutches of five, but suddenly one grabbed me, but before he could deal the death blow he was ripped off me and thrown into the fire. I stared at the vampire who saved me.

"Bella, your family are almost here, but until then we have a newborn problem." He shouted and plucked some newborns from the edges.

I managed to kill another six and was fighting two when they suddenly disappeared and I realised all of the other newborns were dead.

"Bella! Are you alright?" Adam cried pulling me into a hug.

"Been better, but just a missing arm and about 19 fresh bites." I said tiredly.

"Just. I'm sorry we couldn't find you, and you'd be dead if your dad didn't lead us to you." I suddenly pulled out of his embrace and looked around. Noticing how everyone was looking at me or another man.

"Is it really you this time?" I asked shakily.

"Yes Bella. She managed to find someone who could transform themselves." He walked towards me and hugged me, and then I recognised his scent of pine. I smiled into his chest.

"At least you have gold eyes now, not red." He laughed.

"I drink animal blood. Speaking of which, you need some." I shook my head, thirsting for only human.

"I don't want that disgusting stuff." He sighed and pulled me away so I was at arm's length.

"Don't be difficult Bella."

"Actually she needs human by this point or she won't heal at all." Sam pointed out. "We have some donated at home." I felt relieved but was actually quite tired so I don't think my face moved much.

"Well does anyone have my arm firstly?" I mumbled tiredly.

"I do." Alice said. That alerted me to the fact the Cullen's were here.

"So now you know." I closed my eyes feeling defeated.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Esme spoke from somewhere to my right.

"Now isn't the time, but it's pretty obvious why." I felt my knees give way; I'd be worried if I didn't know that I wouldn't die. I was just tired due to all the foreign venom in my system and my body trying to repair itself. I noticed someone grab, me but I didn't know who until I smelt them, and found the energy to pull myself away from them.

"Don't touch me." I spat. He looked hurt which made me want to take it all back but then I remembered what he did and held my tongue. Now Lawrence walked up to me and pulled me up.

"Let's get you home." He said as he towed me away.

* * *

**Ypu wouldn't believe how many cliffhangers i wanted to leave it on, but they would have left you all wanting to kill me :)**

**What do you think? I've cleared up some points I have dropped and given clues about others.**

**Do you think Bella really did kill Adam's sister?**

**Review please!**


	17. Fix that wall

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* * *

**BPOV**

"Stop itching it." Sam sighed.

"But it's itchy." I whined.

"It will be for a few days, get over it. Here." He held out another glass of blood. "Don't get used to it, that's your last one, then your back on the animal stuff." He informed me while clearing up and washing his hands of venom.

"How long will this take to heal?" I muttered, taking a mouthful, savouring the taste.

"You will be able to use it properly in about three days." He smiled, but lowered his voice so only he and I could hear. "You said you only received about 19 fresh bites, but on your severed arm there were at least 15. So is it me or is there something else going on?"

"It's you." I muttered, and he sighed knowing I wouldn't say anything.

"Come on, everyone is downstairs."

"I'll be there in a minute. I need to change." I said while looking at my ripped and muddy clothes.

"Well you can't do it by yourself." He mused.

"Send Valerie up then. I want to talk to her anyway." He nodded and sped downstairs closing my bedroom door after.

I walked to my closet and picked out black jeans and a long sleeved cotton top, I had laid said items on the bed just as she walked in.

"Close the door please." I asked. She did so.

"Why me? Why not Kaiya? Or hell even Joanne?" She asked sounded exasperated.

"Because the rest of my family don't know about my bites." I told her calmly, looking at my clothes. "Now help me with this will you?" She silently walked over and helped me remove my shirt.

"Jesus Bella. How many bites do you have?" She almost shouted, thank god for soundproofing.

"I lost track a few years ago." I tell her and snatched my top from my bed. "Lift my arm will you, I can't move it yet." She removed it from its makeshift sling and slid it through the sleeve, I hissed slightly and she mumbled a quick sorry. She helped me silently after that but I could see her looking at all my bites sadly.

"Haven't you thought it would be easier to tell them everything?" She sagged against one of the posts of my bed.

"Believe me, I have, but it causes more trouble than it's worth."

"But they'd help you. You're obviously not there by choice."

"I'm there to protect them. That's the deal." I fumed, knowing she meant well but she didn't know everything. "Speaking of which, I need to leave on Friday, I might be gone for a few days, or I might be gone for a few months. My family is used to it, but the Cullen's will freak. I need you to cover for me, spin some story about it being too much or something." I instructed, while brushing my hair which resembled a bird's nest.

"No. I'll pretend I don't know anything, but I won't lie. They took me in when I was depressed without question..." She paused to study my face for a minute, "When I was in a similar state to Edward." I glared at her.

"Why do people keep saying that? First it's you, and then it's your sister, then you again."

"What exactly did my sister say to you?"

"Ask her yourself." I scoffed and walked over to my door, I had opened it a crack when she spoke.

"Please Bella."

"She still cares about you." I said quietly and left her alone in my room. I thought she would leave it alone until she grabbed my good arm when I was on the second floor.

"What else?" She asked, her voice sounded chocked, and I looked at her surprised to see her eyes filling up with venom she could never shed.

"Not much else which concerned you. Other than you being orphans."

"Who then?"

"Me, bad things I've done, nothing anyone knows." I breathed.

"You okay Bells?" Came my father's voice from the ground floor.

"Yes." I said, my voice cracking faintly.

"We'll come in a minute." Valerie called, and then waited until my father's footsteps entered the living room and closed the door after.

"What do you mean Bella? What things?" I shook my head and decided to jump to the ground instead of walking down the stairs. I took a deep breath and entered the living room, Valerie slipping in afterwards.

The room was completely silent, and everyone was focused on me. Gee... great.

"Seen something you like?" I asked, irritated. I may have changed a lot since being human, but I still hated being the centre of attention.

"I'm sure some have." Adam muttered, throwing a glance in the Cullen's direction. The atmosphere was to say the least, tense, so I took a sip of my last glass of human blood, and then almost blushed when I saw all the Cullen's look at it disgustedly.

"I have problems with my bloodlust, alright?" I said defensively walking over to the window seat, as it's harder for people to look at me as directly. Notice how I said harder but not impossible.

"How much of that did you give her by-the-way?" Adam turned to Sam.

"That's her fourth, and her last."

"So you drink human then?" Emmett pointed out.

"No shit Sherlock." Joanne scoffed.

"Have you tried animal?" Carlisle inquired, his golden gaze focusing on my ruby, so I looked down at my glass and swirled the deep substance, which clung to the sides of the glass.

"Yes, but if I use my physical shield a lot, I have to feed at least once a week, and it's easier to drink a glass of this every other week. Besides it makes being around humans easy and it keeps me stronger," I looked at him sternly through my lashes, and took another sip, sighing in happiness.

"Who changed you?" Rosalie asked.

"Victoria, but why would you care?" I looked at the blonde beauty who always hated me when I was human. So I was surprised when I saw her guilty look.

"Because I care about you like a sister Bella. I know you never thought it, but I was so horrible to you because I was jealous."

"_You _jealous of _me_? You're joking."

"No, I'm not. Everyone thought it was because of your humanity, which was a main part of it, you had everything I had wanted: a chance to grow old, a chance to have children, grandchildren, stay in one place through my life, maybe even get ill once in a while, and sleep. You didn't know what you had Bella, and you were going to throw it all away before you lived, but there was also the fact that Edward had picked you. He found you more beautiful; don't get me wrong, I don't think of Edward as anything more than a brother, but my beauty was one of the things I value, as everything else about my human life was taken away. So for everything I have caused you, I'm sorry." I stared at Rosalie to a few minutes, Rosalie saying sorry. Add that to the fact she seemed genuinely remorseful.

"Erm, well thank you. I understand it better now." She smiled sadly and turned around, but then I decided to add something, "I accept your apology." Well Rosalie is the one I could forgive most easily, especially for her reasons, beside she never directly did anything to hurt me. Suddenly she threw herself into my arms for a hug.

"Thank you Bella." I was too shocked to return the hug, but she withdrew with a big smile and skipped over to her husband who beamed at his wife.

"Whoa... did Rosalie actually say sorry?" Alice said mouth agape.

"What you didn't see that miss know-it-all?" I muttered draining the rest of my glass.

"Bella. I'm sorry for trying to kill you." Jasper stood, I quickly tightened both my shields around me, without the charge. So Jasper couldn't manipulate my emotions. But then I decided to see if he really did regret it, so when his power extended towards me, not to change my emotions but to sense them, I stole it.

"What!" Jasper said, looking panicked. I jumped and pretended to look shocked.

"What?" I asked.

"My ability has gone." Jasper said with a voice as panicky as his emotions, damn I could feel his panic, how does he cope with this? I noticed amusement from somewhere, from my family. Their combined amusement was so much, I began to laugh.

"This isn't a laughing matter." Jasper said stamping his foot.

"I know. I'm sorry." I giggled and tried to focus on Carlisle's emotions, calm but with a hint of worry. In fact, I decided to have some fun. Joanne still needed to be punished, so I directed a huge wave of lust on Joanne towards Jasper.

Of course Jasper didn't know what was happening, and just panicked, running around the room while Joanne was trying to straddle him while saying, "But I wanna make lurrrve." With Joanne's speed she caught him almost immediately, but just as she was about to kiss the poor vampire, she was thrown off him and cleanly through a wall due to a punch from Alice.

"Alice, you will fix that wall." I told her, giving her encouragement to be helpful, so she sped off and came back with some plaster and paint. I sat and lounged in an empty armchair, ignoring everyone's looks and focused on making sure Alice repaired the wall properly. But Joanne, who just came walking out of the room next door, shaking plaster free from her hair, came and tackled me. So I sent her waves of sleep.

"Hush now Jo-jo."

"I hate that name." She yawned. "Now give Jasper his power back."

"Naw Jo-jo, you ruin the fun." I pouted.

"Bella, please?" Carlisle asked.

"Why should I listen to you?" I replied and sent waves of sleepiness through him too.

"Well don't I have the right to ask for my powers back?" Jasper asked looming over me, trying to look threatening.

"You have the right, but it doesn't mean she'll give them back." Lawrence chuckled, with an arm around his mate's waist. Just as Lorrie and Jasper launched into an argument about it, my sight when blank and I appeared to be standing in a room, well one of the Volturi's rooms.

"Bella, so glad you could join us." Aro said, face beaming, I looked down at myself and saw that I appeared to be transparent.

"I see you got Jeremy to summon me here. You do know I'm in the middle of something, well you're lucky you didn't do this a few hours ago or you would have just killed me."

"Oh that's a shame." Caius muttered.

"Please brother, we didn't bring her here to argue."

"What _do_ you want?" I asked the leaders folding my arms.

* * *

**AdamPOV**

"I do have the right, it belongs to me. I don't remember any law saying otherwise."

"But her ability is to take powers away, so she has the right to use them." Lorrie countered.

"No-" Jasper began before Joanne cut him off.

"Bella?"

"What's wrong with Bella?" Charlie asked, beginning to sound panicky.

Sam ran over to her and did the obvious thing of wafting a hand in front of her face.

"Jasper, run away from the house until you can feel your powers return." Sam said. Jasper complied and after five minutes returned looking relaxed. "Okay, do you feel anything from her?"

Jasper concentrated for a moment, then shook his head.

"Not a thing."

"It sounds like she isn't there." Carlisle said, perplexed.

"The lights are on but nobody's home?" Everyone turned to look at Emmett sceptically, but it was the phrase I would have used.

"Well, do something will you?" Charlie commanded.

"I can't Charlie, we'll just have to wait for her to come back, and find out what happened." Sam said sadly.

I just sat there, unmoving, as did Edward, while everyone else milled around, well everyone with one other.

"Can I sit here?" Valerie asked, I nodded minutely, so she sat, perched on the edge, tense. "Adam, I need to talk to you. Or at least tell you something. I know I don't deserve it but will you please listen." I looked over at the beautiful features of the vampire next to me, marvelling at how perfect she is. Well I had nothing to lose by listening to her.

"Okay, I'll listen."

"When I returned to your house those 68 years ago, and you're sister was dead-" I winced, but she carried on, "- then you told me to leave. I did as you asked, as you were too distraught over her death and I knew a vampire did it. But when you sent me away, I got thinking. Your sister only died because my scent was all over the place, and she didn't even know anything about vampires. It was also my fault, if I hadn't asked you to leave to see the stupid landscape when we were supposed to be looking after your sister; I would have been there to stop them. Then I realised I could have just not come up to you that day to try and lure you away to kill you. Sure I'm grateful I met you, you made me a vegetarian, but you also gave me the opportunity to love you. So if I said I would take back ever meeting you, I would be lying, call me selfish but that's how I feel.

"When I told you I found someone else, I was lying, but I stayed with you for a few weeks. I almost came back, seeing you so miserable, but my brain overrode my heart- cliché I know- but it's true. Then I left hoping you would eventually recover. I moped for a few years, but for a while travelled for about four decades, joined the Volturi for about four years, then found the Cullen's about eight years ago, and have been with them ever since."

"Why are you telling me all this?" I whispered, looking at my gloved hands, wanting to believe her, and I did but there'd be only one way to check.

"Because I need to you understand, how sorry I am. Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic you found a lovely family who cares for you, but I'm sorry for putting you through that pain, and that I do still love you." I looked over at her and saw the sorrow in her eyes.

I quickly slipped one of my gloves off, and grabbed her hand. Then her life flashed before my eyes. I caught some of the extreme emotions, but when I reached her time in the Volturi, I let go and leapt away hissing.

"Adam I'm sorry, she should tell you." Valerie almost pleaded, and now everyone who had studiously been ignoring us, had diverted their full attention.

"_What_?" Edward spoke loudly, "the Volturi?"

"Adam please, you need to see the whole story, you don't understand." Valerie held out her hand.

"No Valerie, it's alright. You were right. I should have just told them." Bella spoke tiredly, and everyone turned to face her.

"Tell us what?" Jack asked, looking hurt.

"That she works for the Volturi." I spat.

* * *

**Cleared something else up, sorry there isn't much Charlie, I might do a bit of Bella/Charlie bonding time in a few chapters.**

**As my regular readers know, I value all of your opinions and often take them into account and use them, so click the button labelled 'Review' and give a couple of words, then you appear in the top of the next chapter :)**

**Oh and if you have any questions i'll answer them if they don't ruin the plot.**


	18. The Volturi

**To my unnamed reviewer- Thank you for your encouragement, I really appreciate it. Also thank you for telling me the fact you are becoming confused between the different points of view. So instead of just saying BPOV or APOV or EPOV, I will change it to BellaPOV or AdamPOV or EdwardPOV, so it's easier to understand :)**

**Thanks:**

**HisBabyGirl65 | chris62287 | Louisvuittonfreak | Lamenting-Angel | **iluvmytallmonster **| Emerau | Elphaba Wannabe | Lionnara | AliceRosalieBellaCullen1234**

**And 'Elphaba Wannabe' I WILL change your mind on the way the story is turning ;)**

**Plus this is the longest chapter yet :)**

* * *

**BellaPOV**

"So the Volturi, huh?" My dad mused as he sat next to me on the wet grass.

"Yeah." I sighed and looked over at his face and realising that he was trying to say something, so I waited for a bit, but got impatient and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Bella, I'll admit. I feel a teensy bit stupid at the moment. You know how I have travelled with Victoria since she changed me?" I nodded. "Well she didn't tell me much about, anything really."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I don't actually know anything about the 'Volturi'," he used his fingers to create quotation marks around the name, "other than the fact that they're not very good." I sat there for a moment taking in my father's face, and then laughed.

"Don't be embarrassed, it's not your fault." I let out another few chuckles.

"Isabella. I told you because I thought you wouldn't laugh at me!" He says accusingly.

"I'm sorry, but I've changed a lot in 70 years."

"I know." He suddenly pulled something shiny out of his pocket and flicked it in the air so I could catch it. I pulled it closer and saw it to be a beer cap.

"Whoa. So it was you?"

"Yes. Even though I couldn't tell you that I was a vampire, I somehow wanted you to know I was thinking about you. I must admit though I could barely find you the majority of the time."

For some bizarre reason, my eyes began to well up and I felt happy, and comforted. Due to the sudden onrush of emotion and leapt into my father's arms and clung onto him sobbing. He rubbed my back and I could feel a huge grin on his face.

"Glad you liked it."

Once I had finished sobbing I pulled away and smiled at him.

"Thanks dad." He returned the smile.

"So back onto the topic of the Volturi?"

"Oh yes." I took a moment to compose myself from my display of emotion. "Well, long story short the Volturi is a big... cult, or what some call vampire royalty. They make sure no vampire breaks the rules."

"There are rules?" He asks with wide eyes.

"A fair few, but the main one is to not expose the vampire race."

"What are some of the others?"

"Well no immortal children, which means you can't make a child into a vampire. You can't make a newborn army. Things like that. Which reminds me... did you help Victoria make that army?"

"No. I just had to help look after them."

"Good, otherwise the Volturi would kill you when they found out."

"So they kill vampires?"

"If they break the main rules, yes. Others they are more lenient on, but if you go on trial well you have to hope that two of the brothers like you. The final vote normally relies on Aro. This leads me to the leaders. There are three 'brothers', no-one knows if they are actually brothers, but that's what they call themselves. Firstly is Marcus, he has the gift of being able to see relationships between people, his mate was killed many years ago and he is fairly lonely, but he is fair, if someone is innocent, he won't purposely get someone killed, or hasn't yet. He is almost the exact opposite to Caius. Caius is ruthless, it's amazing he has a wife, some say his is one of the nicest vampires when he is with his wife, but others say he as just as bad, but she keeps him in line and it works, but all I know is that Caius will try to get any vampire he doesn't like killed. Then comes Aro. Even though the three brothers are supposedly equal, it's quite obvious Aro is the one with the most power. All of the guard looks up to him and treats him better than they do Marcus. Aro will do what he wants, unless there is something in it, but if Aro likes you and you respect him, he will be very fair and kind, but he has a gift of being to see every thought anyone has had."

"Right," Charlie nodded, "but what is it about this guard?"

"Well the three leaders and they're two wives have a guard. The numbers fluctuate at about fifty. They normally have about twenty-five with abilities and the rest is muscle.

"There are members of the guard you should look out for. There is Chelsea- she can manipulate relationships between people, that's how the guard hasn't ripped each other apart yet. There is Demetri, he is the best vampire tracker in the world and can find you as long as he has met you before. There is Quentin, who has the ability to teleport himself from place to place, but thankfully the distance is limited. As I said before there is Jeremy who can communicate with people anywhere and nothing affects him, even my shield. There is what vampires call 'the witch twins' called Jane and Alec. Although they are twins, their personalities are opposites. Jane is quite often angry and ruthless, which fits her gift as she is able to make someone feel like they are burning." I shuddered at the reminder, damn me and my stupid curiosity. "Then there is her twin Alec. He is quite laid back and quiet, which suits his gift, of being able to cut off all the senses. Alec can affect an infinite amount of people at one time, whereas Jane can only affect one. One of the last ones you should know about-"

"Wait, there's _more_?" He asked, shocked.

"Well there is a lot more than that, but they're not as threatening, these are the top two levels, after the three brothers. And before you ask, Chelsea, Demetri, Quentin and Jeremy are the third level, then Jane, Alec and two others are in the second. Now, there is Madeline who can erase powers with one touch. If she takes them, she can't use them but she can permanently strip them, but if she loses contact with your skin before this, well everything is as right as rain. So really you just have to be on your guard and try to cover up as much skin as possible."

"Is that why you always wear long sleeves and trousers?" Kaiya asked, sitting on my other side.

"Partly, but not the main reason." I smiled at her. "Have you forgiven me yet?" I asked hopefully.

"Bella, I was never angry with you in the first place." She said and gave me a light hug. "The others were just surprised."

I scrunched my face up, and remembered the explanation I gave a short while ago...

"_The Volturi?" Sam asked, dumbstruck._

"_Yes. I'm sorry I didn't tell you." I said, feeling ashamed._

"_Well it makes sense." Lawrence mumbled and everyone turned to him questioningly. "I had guessed a while ago, but wasn't sure, and hoped you would say something."_

"_Well why didn't you tell us?" Adam growled._

"_Because she obviously didn't want us to know for a reason, Adam. Think about it." He replied. Adam opened his mouth to angrily retort, when he turned to Valerie._

"_And why didn't you say anything?"_

"_Because I promised, and I keep my promises. Remember." She said, looking at him solemnly. Adam opened and closed his mouth a few times before he turned away with his head down._

"_So why are you with them?" Joanne asked, looking genuinely interested._

"_To put it simply, it's... easier."_

"_What do you mean?" Carlisle asked, I shot him a look as if to say 'it's none of your business' but then sighed and stood up, turning away from the rest._

"_I mean that it saves time and energy. I have to go there for one month every other year, and they leave us alone. They don't force me to do anything, they just get me and a few others of the guard to travel around and stop trouble makers, normally it's the armies... hang on," I quickly turned to my father. "How long has this army been going for?" _

"_Almost a year, but she kept it under the radar." I thought back to my conversation with Aro._

"_So that's why he was desperate to get me back early... oh well." I mused._

"_Hang on. If you go for one month every two years, you are due back..." Jack paused and did a quick calculation. "Next week." I nodded._

"_It's only for a month." I shrugged._

"_But-" Jack began, but I cut him off._

"_Just then, when I went all blank, Aro contacted me to say he needed me as soon as I could get there. I told him I'd be there by Friday. Which gives me enough time to sort out things with the wolves, school, and you guys." I looked around the room, noticing a pang in my chest as I passed over Edward._

"_So they don't force you to actually do anything?" Adam asked still sceptical._

"_No. I don't even have to kill the vampires if I don't want to." There was silence for a few minutes while everyone seemed to digest what I had said._

"_So you _can _fight?"Kaiya piped up._

"_Yes. I know enough to probably be able to beat everyone in this room."_

"_I'll hold you to that." Emmett winked; I gave a very small smile._

"_So you lied?" Adam said, anger obviously rising._

"_Yes Adam, I did."I said honestly knowing avoiding it would make him angrier. But when he charged at me, I knocked him aside easily. "Adam, stop getting so angry. It won't change anything."_

_He just huffed and straightened his clothes then stormed out. I sighed after him, knowing that it wasn't his injury that caused his anger that time._

"_Well, I guess it's our cue to leave." Carlisle announced standing up and I wafted my hand._

"_Stay if you want. What do I care?" I muttered and walked out of the room..._

I was alone for only an hour until my father came out.

"Well Adam didn't seem to be 'surprised'."

"He'll come round, you're like... his sister in a weird way, as he sometimes thinks of you as his mom, but you may get really angry with your sister/mom, but you still love them and care about them." Kaiya comforted, but I kept silent and stared at our pond. "The Cullen's are still here though. Jasper and Lawrence seem to be coming friends. Joanne and Jack are already planning things with Emmett. I like Rosalie and Alice. I bet Aimee and Ash would be great friends with Carlisle and Esme." I noticed how she didn't mention Edward, which annoyed me in a way, I wanted to know what he was doing, but didn't... it was an odd sensation.

Suddenly I heard giggling from inside, and it wasn't good giggling. It was evil in the form of Jack, Joanne and Emmett.

"Excuse me a minute." I whispered and ran up to my balcony, hearing Kaiya tell my Dad how 'this is going to be good'. I hid behind my door and noticed how they were approaching my study. So I quickly slipped a shield over my study door, the charged one.

This caused someone to scream and fly over the staircase and land on the floor. I identified the girl-like scream as Emmett, and then heard a whisper.

"I told you this was a bad idea." Jack hissed.

"Well you can't chicken out now." She replied. When I realised they were still planning on entering; I quickly text Kaiya to go to my study and pose as myself. While I slipped into Kaiya's room on the floor below and took the shield off the door.

I knew how the two of them worked, so when they had finished the prank on poor Kaiya, Jack raced for the door and Joanne the balcony, so I spread my shield around the door frame and the windows, and waited by my open study door.

It was worth it to see Jacks face as he saw me and realised they had been tricked, but as he went to tell Joanne, she was shocked back from the window, knocked into him and flew them into the shield on the door, they acted like a bouncy ball for about thirty seconds until I removed my shield from the door and stepped aside so they could fly past and add an additional dent to the floor where the rest of the Cullen's had been standing a second before... if only they were a second late.

I leant over the glass banister casually and looked down at them grinning.

"Never go against the master." I sang.

"Never!" Joanne called leaping up with a spray-can of gold paint, so I leaped over the banister and flung myself into her, aiming for us to crash land in her room. Unfortunately I did end up with a gold arm and a sore shoulder, but she ended up with a gold head.

"I win." I grinned, as she looked around her room exasperated at the falling dust from furniture and plaster.

"Fine. But I will get you one day."

"If you say so." I jumped up and walked out of the room almost walking into the Cullen's. "Oh."

"Do you do this on a daily basis?" Jasper asked in amusement.

"Yes." I said and walked around them, heading the usual way towards my room absentmindedly rubbing my shoulder where the venom was working, when I met Kaiya on the way who looked disgruntled.

"I have to wash this off now." She mumbled rubbing her arms.

"Well don't bother because it's raining and we are playing the flag game." I grinned.

"But Victoria's out there." Someone said behind me.

"Well Edward, I beat her once before. Besides she is missing an arm and hand. So she has to find someone to attach them for her." I shrugged, not daring to turn around.

"What if we played? We'd be able to keep you safe." Esme suggested and I stiffened.

"I can look after myself." I replied coldly and sped to my room while saying. "The boulder in an hour." As soon as I closed my door, I let out a gust of air that I didn't know I was holding and kept thinking why I said they could stay in the first place. Why was I so weak around the Cullen's? I let out a sob, hating the fact that after seventy years and all they did, I still loved them.

"Bella?" Came my dad's voice from the other side of the door. I quickly straightened and opened the door a crack. "Can I come in?" He asked softly, looking troubled. I nodded, opening the door just enough for him to slip in.

Once I closed the door I slid over to my sofa and looked glumly at the floor, my Dad stood still for a moment, then walked over and knelt in front of me.

"What did they do Bells? You were like this when they left." He asked brushing some hair from my face so he could see it more clearly.

"What you said. They left." I whispered, refusing to look at my father's face.

"Why does it affect you so much? If I had known they were vampires from the start I would have ordered them to leave. You must have known it was for your own good in the end... or did he do something to you in those woods?" He slowly raised his voice and gripped the seat tighter as he said each word.

"They just left, without a word. Well, Edward told me he didn't love me. It was just triggered by my birthday... remember when I came home that night with a bandage?" He nodded. "Well I had got a paper cut, and frenzy alert. But Edward, trying to stop me from having my blood drained, pushed me out of the way, causing me to fall on smashed crystal." The story tumbled out, and when I looked at my Dad's face, he looked confused.

"Hang on. He saved you from becoming a vampire or death, and then said he didn't love you and left you in the middle of the woods?"

"Well, not really. He left me on path in sight of the house, but me being the idiot I am, tried to follow him."

"It doesn't make sense, why save you if he didn't love you?"

"I don't know. Maybe he just didn't want a death on his conscience." I shrugged. My Dad snorted then stood up, I looked at him questioningly.

"Do you still love him?" He said solemnly. I looked away, not wanting to answer. But he pulled my face gently towards him. "Yes or no Bells?" I gulped and gave a small nod, my eyes welling up at the fact he still had a hold on me. "Come now. Us Swans are strong and don't show deep emotions. Unless it's a smile." I gave a small chuckle, and he shot me a smile before he left, closing the door.

I was only alone for twenty minutes before I received a knock on my door. I walked over and opened it, only to freeze when I saw who it was on the other side.

"Bella. Can we talk?" His musical voice said, but I couldn't reply, my brain refused to work. I stared at him blankly, and then had the sudden urge to slam the door in his face and shock him to Singapore. But my brain worked enough to not do that, just yet.

"What do you want Edward?" I asked, staring at him, making my eyes cold and hard.

"I just want to explain. I-"

"Oh explain? Explain what exactly?" I asked, feigning surprise, and leaning against the door frame.

"I want to explain about-"

"Sorry? What?" I asked, stepping out from my room and slowly walking towards him, satisfied by the fact he was backing away and looking wary.

"Bella, please let me finish. I need to say I'm sorry." He rushed, obviously scared I would cut him off again.

"Sorry? For what? For dumping me in the woods? For saying you don't love me? For being a general A-hole?" I growled. I had now backed him down by two floors.

"Yes, and so much more." He said sincerely.

"Oh, what else?" A voice in the back of my mind was telling me I was being unfair, but that was easily smothered.

"Well, for everything..."

"You are very full of yourself Edward Anthony Masen Bastard Cullen. Thinking everything revolves around you." Now we were on the ground floor and I was backing him towards the front door, which Joanne had opened with a bow. "Now please leave before I make you." I silently prayed that he would refuse so I could shock him out

"Edward, just leave." Valerie warned.

"But i-" God answered my prayers and I covered a finger with my shield then touched him squarely in the chest. Then like the scene in _Sherlock Holmes _with Robert Downy Jnr. And Jude Law, he went flying out the door. Valerie sighed, and throwing me a disapproving glance, walked out after. I turned around and saw the numerous faces.

"What?" I asked innocently, but was then surprised when everyone began to burst out laughing.

"Ha ha, he so had that coming." Emmett chortled.

"Go Bella!" Rosalie and Alice whooped, even Carlisle chuckled. Heartened by the reaction from the Cullen's, I asked if they still wanted to play the flag game. Carlisle and Esme politely declined, but everyone else was game.

* * *

**Does anyone read these things...?**

**So I think I will do one more chapter before she goes to the Volturi. But I think after that, I will skip a month and continue when she returns. But I'd like to know if you would like to hear from Bella while she was at the Volturi, or see how things will change by the time she returns. And for all those wondering about her and Edward, it will happen but he will grovel and she will make it difficult.**

**Review pleaseeee.**


	19. Goodbyes

**I know this is one of my shorter chapters, but if I'm honest there wasn't too much to write about. I will try to post another two chapters before I go on holiday.**

**Thanks:**

**sasuXsakufangirl | Darkest Nights | **Twilight** | Louisvuittonfreak | Connie Tinkham | twilgithgirlforever | p3eachstuff | Angel-Of-Death-136 | fallenangel1985 | **iluvmytallmonester **| ashgolden | volleygirl19 | Satsuki Hakumei | theGuppyFish | stephforever | magmom3 | Lionnara | |**

**A special thank you to **_**HisBabyGirl65 **_**for their opinions :) and ability to boost one's confidence.**

**And a thanks to **_**Elphaba Wannabe**_** for giving my story a chance in the first place.**

* * *

**BellaPOV**

I zipped up my bag and sighed. I did love my family to bits, and even though it was only a month, it was difficult.

"When does your flight leave?" Sam asked where he was sat next to Kaiya on my bed.

"When I want it to. It's the Volturi's plane."

"Well you better call every day." Joanne said from the sofa.

"Can I change that to, whenever I can?" Joanne grinned with a nod.

It was great that most of my family had gotten used to the idea, as they understood. They told me that like Lawrence they did suspect it, but dismissed it. Adam seemed to be coming round, but he told me how he was merely upset I never told him in the first place. At least he seems to be warmer to Valerie. It's slow but it's getting there.

Thinking about how they may be beginning to become friends, and maybe at a later point, back together, gave me a pang of jealousy. I wish Edward and I could even just be friends, and I knew that it's my fault; I won't give him the chance to explain. I loathe my stubbornness sometimes.

Maybe I'll try to listen to him next time. In fact, it would probably be easier to listen to them, they might be sincere. Maybe I shouldn't try to shoot them down either before I have thought it through...

I was distracted by the ringing of the door bell. I opened the door to see Alice and Jasper.

"Can I help you?" I said, slightly dumbstruck as to why they were here.

"We came to talk to you." Jasper answered while Alice looked down to the floor, her expression unreadable.

"Oh... Okay." I opened the door wider to let them through, and let the relaxation, that was ebbing from Jasper, seep into me, I shot him a small smile of thanks and closed the door.

I led them to my study, as everyone knew to not disturb me there, and it was one of the places with the thickest sound proofing, so you wouldn't even be able to hear someone shout at the top of their lungs.

Once I closed my study door and they had sat down, Jasper began to talk.

"Bella, we all understand you are angry and upset at us-" I opened my mouth to contradict him, but then remembered that he could sense my emotions, so I closed my mouth and continued to listen politely. "-And we completely understand that. We have no excuse for leaving, other than the fact Edward told us to. We didn't know exactly what he had done until a few weeks ago, and well I am slightly ashamed to say, have treated him horribly since then. But we really cared- and still do- about you as a sister. So I would like to ask your forgiveness for my trying to kill you."

I sat there staring at Jasper for a moment, wanting to blurt out things like 'why can't Alice speak for herself', and 'if you didn't want to leave so badly, why did you' and various things on those same lines. Yet, just before they arrived, I said I would think it through before I did anything rash. Then after _really _thinking about it for a minute or two, I almost kicked myself. Of course I should forgive Jasper for 'trying to kill' me, he couldn't help it, and I never held it against him in the first place.

"Yes Jasper, I forgive you." He grinned and looked like he wanted to give me a hug, but restrained himself.

"Also, I would like to ask if you would _ever _be able to forgive me for leaving you."

"Yes Jasper. I have already." I don't know why I had forgiven him, if I'm perfectly honest. But it felt right and Jasper wasn't manipulating me in any way. This time, he didn't hesitate and practically leapt across my desk and pulled me into a hug. It felt weird, due to the fact we had never actually had physical contact before, but I hugged his solid form back, and then noticed Alice looking longingly at us. Jasper must have noticed too, because he pulled away and returned to his position by his wife's side.

There was an awkward silence for what felt like hours, when it was probably only two seconds, before Jasper nudged Alice and she looked up at me with big sad eyes and then the words came tumbling out of her mouth, almost too fast to understand.

"Bella, I'm really, really, _really_ sorry, and you shouldn't forgive me. But please do. I won't take you shopping. I won't organise parties. I'll be your personal slave for a hundred years if needs be." She then launched herself at me and wrapped her tiny arms around my waist like a vice, "please forgive me Bella. I will never do it again. I should have never done it in the first place."

I looked down at her, biting my lip so hard it tore slightly, leaving it stinging. She looked up at me, her eyes large and pleading. I needed to think without her desperation biasing my decision. So I untangled myself from her arms and turned away, weighing the reasons for why I should, and why I shouldn't forgive her and why.

After a quick minute or so, I figured out what I was going to say. I turned around and, noticing how she hadn't moved an inch from her previous position, spoke.

"I can't forgive you. Not yet. I think I will eventually. But you really did hurt me Alice, you were my best friend." She kept silent and looked remorseful. "So I'm going to go away, and when I come back. We'll see how it goes, okay? One more chance."

"Thank you Bella. I couldn't ask for anything more." She smiled, and skipped over to Jasper who was smiling back at her.

"Actually Bella, I also to ask you something else." He laughed feeling my exasperation. "No worries you don't have to give an answer now, but everyone else really wants to see you again. So when you get back, we were all thinking you could come over, and only the people you want to... 'Deal with' will be there. As I said this is only a suggestion."

I rubbed my hand over my face, feeling mentally weary.

"Okay, but only Esme and Carlisle at first. They'll probably be the easiest." He nodded and stood pulling Alice up.

"Thank you Bella. We've told your family that they can come over whenever they want while you're away as Esme is, as you know, a mother hen, and a worrywart. Also Emmett wants me to tell you how sorry he is, but he's grounded so Esme wouldn't let him come."

"Why what has he done now?"

"Tried to pull a prank on you." He chortled as he pulled Alice out the door. When the door closed behind them, I collapsed in my chair and groaned. That's the thing the Cullen's do best... wear you out.

**sHsHs**

"Are you sure? I'm sure everyone would love you to stay." I asked feeling concern for my father who was slinging a small bag with the small amount of money he would let me give him and a change of clothes.

"I'm fine Bells. Stop worrying." He patted me on the cheek.

"But where will you go?"

"Around. I haven't left Washington for more than a day for 90 years. Besides I can take care of myself."

"But-"

"Isabella," I grimaced at my full name but the warning in his voice told me to keep quiet. "I will visit every other month and call every month. Besides from what I've heard the Volturi will know if anything happens to me." I sighed, knowing my father was as stubborn as I was so it was no use arguing with him.

"Well at least take my bike. You spent the last week fixing it, besides I have another." I looked at him to show I wasn't budging on the matter.

"Thanks Bells. I will look after it." He leant over and hugged me tightly.

"You don't have to leave now you know." I said, voice cracking. I know I am going away anyway, but this felt too much like a goodbye, as opposed to a see you in two months.

"Yes I do." He pulled away and planted a kiss on my forehead before walking to the garage.

"Why?" I called as he started up the bike.

"Because, I'll never leave otherwise." He grinned and sped past me, his chocolate curls flying behind him. I stood on the lawn staring after him for about half an hour, before turning around and walking back inside.

I quickly sent a text to the pilot, saying that I'd be there in twenty minutes. Then called out- "I'm off."

"W-w-w-w-w-wait," Joanne called as she ran up from the basement.

"W-w-w-what?" I mimicked, but was surprised to say the least when she ran up and hugged me. "Wow, you don't do that normally."

"Well the other times you would just disappear and now I can say bye-bye and kick you out the door."

"Erm thanks." By this point everyone else had gathered and said their goodbye's... all but one.

"I'm sorry Bella. I'm sure he'll have come round when you get back." Lorrie said and I sighed. Annoying thing about Adam, he doesn't cope well with change.

"Tell him I said bye."

"Will do."

"Okay," I picked up my bag and looked sternly at my family, "Remember my shield won't be on you, so be careful. No breaking things, we don't have enough money to replace it all at the current time. And lastly-"

"Keep out of trouble." They all sang simultaneously.

"Good. I should be back the day before Halloween, and just be good. Remember you all get to decide but if it's drawing, Sam gets the deciding vote. If you see Victoria, call. If you need me but can't get hold of me, call this number, it's my replacement. They'll help." **(*See end)**

"Are you saying we aren't allowed to go to the airport with you?" Jack said, jutting his bottom lip out.

"Yes, I don't need a goodbye party." I laughed. "Right I need to go, bye." Joanne flashed an evil smile. "No you cannot kick me out the door." She folded her arms grumpily but waved.

It didn't take me long to run to Port Angeles, ten minutes at most and the plane was waiting. Just as we about to take off I received a call.

"Hello?"

"_Bella?"_

"No, it's the Queen. Of course it's me." I rolled my eyes.

"_I'm sorry about acting like a jerk recently."_

"It's alright. You were right, I should have told you."

"_Too right. Now look out the window._" I looked to my left and saw Adam stood a little way away.

"What are you doing there?"

"_Waving you off."_

"You know this is really cliché right?"

"_Oh yes. That's why I did it."_

"Not."

"_Okay maybe not. Valerie told me off for not talking to you."_

"Tell her I said thanks. And you owe me an invite."

"_Erm... to what?"_

"To your wedding duh."

"_If there is going to be one, it won't be for a while. I'm taking her out tomorrow."_

"Wow, second date two days after the first. A record."

"_Ha, you are hilarious," _he said sarcastically. "_Well your pilot is telling me to clear off, so I better go, and you better call."_

"God, if I could count how many times people have said that in the past day. And See you in a month Jones."

"_See you in a month Swan."_

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**(*Bella told her family before now that when she isn't with them, she has to deal with Volturi business in whichever continent she is living. There are others around the world and that's how the Volturi knows what is going on, they don't read newspapers often, but when she goes away, the Volturi send a replacement. I haven't had chance to include it yet.)**

**She will return in the next chapter and try to reconcile with the Cullen's, and maybe Adam will have made it up with Rosalie.**


	20. Halloween

**Firstly I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply to anyone's reviews! I have been unbelievably busy, I was on holiday and didn't have access to a computer then when I got back I had had to odd minute or two to myself to write a bit here and there of this chapter, so I promise you that next time I will be back on track.**

**Secondly thanks to:**

**Team Edward and Emmett | VicciTheBestVampire | Wheresmybones | vinny-nicole | ucMst | as if I would say | MissBookwurm | HisBabyGirl65 | XxZOmBIE uNICoRNxX **(I WILL read your story soon!)

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**BPOV**

I arrived on Halloween, I was only a day late due to a vampire thinking he was Dracula and tried to jump out of windows in full view thinking he would turn into a bat. Poor boy. So now a new rule was to never change some who is obviously insane.

When I arrived at the house I expected a party to be in full swing as it was almost 9PM, but it was as quiet as the grave. I walked into the house, peered into most of the rooms and found nothing; in fact it looked like they hadn't been here for a few days, a week at most.

I would have called Adam but halfway through my time in the Volturi my phone was smashed in a fight and I hadn't had a second to replace it.

Luckily I stopped wondering when I arrived at my study, as there was a note on my desk which read-

_Bella,_

_Firstly, why haven't you called in two weeks? It better be a good reason._

_Secondly, we all hope you are back before midnight on Halloween or we are coming for a visit._

_Thirdly, put on a costume as its Halloween over at the Cullen's and its FANCY DRESS!_

_Lastly, when you arrive come to see me, I want to tell you something. _

_So if it's still Halloween get your butt over there and we'll see you there._

I groaned. The Cullen's? I threw my stuff on my bed, and looked in my closet for a costume to wear, and then I grinned.

**sHssHs**

When I arrived at the Cullen's house half an hour later, there was party in full swing. Pretty much every single person in town was there, but the very old ones.

There was music played at a high volume and looking out of the back windows I could see a huge structure labelled 'House of Horror' and in the forest to the left a sign labelled 'Walk of Woe' and all I could think of was the ridiculous names.

Quickly looking around I saw Adam dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, he always had an obsession with those films, stood next to Valerie who was dressed as Bellatrix Lestrange, and the dark wig actually suited her. I also saw Kaiya and Sam dressed as Hansel and Gretel. Jack was dressed as a bear, I haven't a clue why, and Joanne was dressed as a hangman. Jack was dresses as you guessed it, a vampire... original. Martiee was a ghost dressed in an early 18th century wedding dress.

I quickly moved further into the crowd, making sure my hood was up and my cloak was closed tightly around me, I wouldn't join them just yet. I needed to see if anything had changed while I was away, as I was positive it had.

I skulked around for about an hour and a half, talking politely to those who talked to me, but as I never lowered my hood, no-one knew quite who I was but seemed to get the impression to mind their own business. I saw the Cullen's flitting around a few times, Alice was dressed as Tinkerbell, Jasper as a dead soldier from his time, the fake blood looked alarming on his pale skin, Emmett was dressed as the Phantom of the Opera and Rosalie as Satine in Moulin Rouge (the outfit when she sat on the swing at the beginning) - Emmet seemed pleased. Esme was dressed as Cat-woman and Carlisle- Batman, which surprisingly was hilarious to see.

Suspiciously though, I hadn't seen Edward, whether I was just missing him, or he simply wasn't there, I didn't know as the room was too full of different scents to pick out a particular one.

As I was looking for him, I was passing under the stairs when someone grabbed me and yanked me with vampire strength into a room. As I had only left the Volturi I went into fight mode and grabbed hold of them by the throat, growling.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down crazy lady." A familiar voice squeaked, I blinked, the red haze fading and saw the face of Annabelle, my Volturi replacement.

"Oh, sorry." I pulled away, and looked at her petite face surrounded by fluffy mousey brown hair. "But what are you doing here?"

"Your family invited me."

"Why would they do that?"

"Because they thought that as a Volturi member I need to 'loosen up'." I looked her over and noticed that she was dressed in a toga and golden gladiator sandals.

"Nice outfit."I remarked.

"Thanks, but why are you wearing your Volturi cloak? A bit boring isn't it?"

"Not for those who get to see underneath." I winked, "Anyway when will you be going back?"

"Not for a few months, it's my holiday."

I successfully fought back a groan of despair; Annabelle was just one of those vampires that just grated on my nerves.

"So where will you be going?"

"Well... your family said I could stay with them."

I gritted my teeth, but then reminded myself that everyone else loves Annabelle, but Aro and I, but neither of us _hates_ her.

"That's kind of them," I said sweetly, gladly noticing that Annabelle didn't seem to know my slight dislike towards her, "but I must get back to the party." I smiled and glided towards the door.

"You mean spying on your family." She said it shyly, but still a statement and I chuckled.

"You never miss a trick Annabelle." I said, then slipping out the door, not hearing the murmur she added after.

Going back into the party was a slight shock, due to the quietness of the recent conversation, but thankfully, not much had changed, so I quickly slipped out the front door and called Aro.

"_Hello?"_

"Aro," I hissed, "why did you give Annabelle a _few _months off? Now she decides to stay with me!" I growled. "You did it on purpose."

"_I assure you Bella, dear, that I most certainly did not do it on purpose. You know that if she wasn't useful she would not be in the Volturi at all."_

"Well Aro, that's the same for all of us."

"_When it comes under the same topic as Annabelle, no. I dislike her, but Marcus and even Caius adore her. She would be your level if I let it happen." _

I pulled a face, I knew Marcus and Caius loved her to bits, but I never realised how much. So I couldn't so much as disagree with her or they'll be at my throats.

"Okay, I'm sorry Aro. I was just surprised." I rubbed my hand across my facetiredly, feeling the effects of my month away.

"_That's alright. Have you said hello to your family yet?"_

"Well..."

"_Bella," _he scolded me. _"Stop being super vampire spy and be with your family, they're the reason you insist to only stay for a month."_

"I suppose so. Thanks."

"_You're welcome. But before you go, answer a quick question. What did you do that made _Jane _like _you _while you went hunting?" _He said, sounded awed.

"Ah that's a closely guarded secret, so I cannot divulge that information."

"_Isabella..." _He whined.

"Nope." I laughed and hung up.

I turned around and saw Valerie stood behind me.

"Oh Hi Valerie, I didn't see you there."

"I guessed." She said smiling.

"You know, you actually look quite authentic."

"Thanks Bella," she said curling her black hair around her plastic wand.

"So what's happened with you and Adam while I was away?"

"Nothing much, we went on dates." She shrugged.

"Are you alright? I mean, is everything okay between the two of you?"

"Oh yes," she suddenly perked up. "Sorry, I've been giving off that impression haven't I? No, everything is great between us, I was just thinking about my sister."

"Why?" I asked suddenly worried, "She didn't attack while I was away did she?"

"No," I relaxed slightly but waited for the inevitable word that always followed, "but, she want to talk to me."

"Why not? I know I'm not on best terms with her, but you are still her sister." She looked really surprised at my reaction. "What? Did you think I would forbid you from it?"

"Well, no. Okay yes, but everyone else has been discouraging it."

"Just do what you want," I smiled at her; she smiled back warmly and strode into the house. My spirits had lifted slightly during that conversation, I think it was the way I was able to help someone who will probably be family or at least a _very _good friend in the future.

So I walked into the house and headed straight for my family.

"Adam," I pushed my hood back and almost laughed at his elated face, "I know what you want to talk about, and we'll do so later... otherwise, hi." Adams face fell halfway through the sentence, but I wasn't going to dwell on it now, as I said we'd talk about it later.

"Bella! How long have you been here?" Jack asked.

"Maybe a few hours." I grinned at their irritated faces. "I had to find out what was going on first."

"You're a day late." Sam said, pretending to look disappointed but failing; his eyes were shining with happiness.

"Sorry, a case of an insane vampire who thought he was a bat arrived at last minute."

Everyone laughed at this and Joanne was clutching her sides hysterically, which just the rest of us laugh harder. Then The Phantom and Satine turned up.

"Bella!" Emmett grinned; he looked like he wanted to pull me into a hug, but restrained himself, so I pulled him in for a hug instead.

"Hey Emmett!" I screeched in his ear and laughed at his shocked face. "I've calmed down, and I forgive you."

His face turned into 50% grin and to a human it probably looked terrifying with the huge display of teeth, well half of them, due to the mask.

"Thank you Bella." He shouted and turned around and around while still hugging me. When he finally set me down, someone touched my shoulder, and like before I went into fight mode, luckily Adam laughed and said- "Don't do that or she'll rip your arm off."

The way he said it- so carefree- informed me that is wasn't an enemy, so I took a deep breath, relaxed and turned around to see the sheepish grin of Jasper.

"Sorry 'bout that Bella, didn't mean to make you jump." He apologised in his southern twang.

"It's okay Jasper, just doing do it for a week or so or, as Adam said, you will lose an arm."

"How are you Bella?" Alice said quietly from behind her husband.

"Fine thank you Alice. We'll have to go shopping or something at the weekend... catch up." I said, feeling awkward but Alice looked elated.

"Of course. We could go to Seattle?" Wow, she actually asked where to go shopping; she was trying to make an effort.

"If you like it there, why not?"

"Do you want Rose, Esme, Kaiya or Valerie to come?"

"How about just us two?"

"Great." She grinned and began bouncing in excitement.

By this point Carlisle and Esme had noticed us, but simply smiled and waved from where they were across the room.

"They said that they hope you are okay, and that they think it's crowded enough at the moment." Jasper explained, I frowned realising I was the one keeping them away.

"Tell them that I'll come over after shopping with Alice."

"I'm sure that they'd love to hear that." Rose smiled and gave me a quick hug, then turned to everyone. "Come on, we need to get set up on the walk, it's almost midnight." She then walked off, all the vampires following, but I stopped Sam and asked him what was going on.

"We are the things that jump out. Carlisle and Esme are staying at the house though and will let us know if anyone is too scared." He grinned.

"Not like us." I sighed and walked outside. Well at least the walk should keep the humans warm as it was nearing freezing point tonight.

"You are near the end so you need to go in round by the front of the house." He smiled and ran off into the dark.

I sighed and pulled my hood up, but hoped they had a fog machine, so I wouldn't have to do too much jumping out. My vampire side might enjoy it too much... it's not so bad for the others, they can abstain, but while I was with the Volturi I slipped twice, Aro tried to stop me as he realised why I didn't want to drink it, but when I slipped he told me off, which is what I needed really.

The next hour was quite fun actually, as I was the last one ten had already been before me, and their nerves were hanging by a thread. There were only a few who stood out in the hundred or so who filed past in their groups of six. They were in the last group. They were all in the year below. Two were very drunk, and seemed lucky to still be walking, one of them seemed bored, but the rest were terrified like the others.

I'm only mentioning this because of what I found five minutes later, after I had been given the signal that no-on else was coming.

I slowly walked down the path whistling to myself, glad to be home but feeling a bit... left out, as it seems that a lot has changed yet I was left behind. Completely my fault, that's agreed, but I still couldn't help but feel glum. Little did I know that after a minutes' walk towards the house I came across a pool gleaming on the mud. It was odd just having a puddle on the dry ground, but when I breathed I smelt the overwhelming smell of human blood.

I speed towards the source and found the boy who I remembered in the last group as looking bored staring up at me glassily.

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**So as you can guess by now I love your reviews, and I will probably take half an hour tomorrow to reply to the reviews I haven't yet, as I like you guys to know that I do take notice of what you all think and, more often than not, never fail to make me smile with even two words :)**


	21. Robert

**Thanks to:**

**magmom | JezzyMillers | Michael Market | Speedyraider | PacoThePenguinShallAvengeMe **(I love your stories :))

**Longest chapter yet!**

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**BPOV**

"Thank you Miss Littlewood, we will contact you if we need anything else." The Sherriff gave a grim smile and readjusted his hood against the heavy rain and ran towards his cruiser.

I folded my arms and tried to look upset, which I was, but a vampire isn't freaked out by human bodies. I swallowed and winced at the burning in my throat the fresh blood brought on. Damn, now I was thirsty.

I turned around intending to walk through the house to the woods, so if any of the humans were watching no-one would be suspicious. When I got in the house though, all the Cullen's and my family were there.

"Nice to see that you have returned." I said to the eldest Cullen son. He just smiled at me but kept quiet.

"So..." Adam began.

"So what?" I turned to Sam, "Do we have any of the human stuff at home?" I winced rubbing my throat, but before he could answer Carlisle sighed.

"Please Bella; can you be serious for at least an hour? We need to talk about what happened."

I felt my eyes darken in anger at his words.

"So I'm not being serious now? Okay, how about I go back into those woods and actually rip someone's throat out? What about the Sherriff? Or maybe I should go to the hospital where the other five kids are in shock and kill them so they don't say anything about vampires? Actually I should do that as it's my job. Is that serious enough for you?" Carlisle recoiled and his eyes were shocked. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes till I had calmed down. "Annabelle." I called, looking to the sofa where her head had just popped up, "Keep close to the hospital and see if they say anything, but don't do anything, they'll contribute it to shock or someone in a costume, while I ask Aro." She nodded and ran out the front as everyone had left.

I paced, unconsciously biting my lip, and trying to figure out how to deal with the situation, repeating everything that I had seen that night and went through it all with a fine tooth comb,

"Bella-" Someone began, but I held up a hand to stop them, then it suddenly hit me.

"Fuck." I kicked the table nearest me across the room.

"Bella!" Esme said, offended.

"Sorry... but how could I have been so stupid!" I then went on with a steam of profanities, causing Emmett and Joanne to laugh and cheer me on while everyone, even Carlisle, smirked.

"Bella, what's going on?" Carlisle asked.

"She was here! I even talked to her!" I said frustrated.

"Who?" Lorrie asked.

"Victoria," I spat. The room was silent for a beat then everyone started shouting at once, until Esme shushed them all down.

"But we would have seen her."

"You didn't see me for hours, until I decided to show myself to you. Besides she wasn't hiding."

"What do you mean?" Kaiya asked, clutching her husband's hand.

I pointed at Valerie.

"What do you mean by that?" Adam jumped to defend her before I could get a word in edgeways; I glared at him to be quiet.

"I mean that, they look very alike, especially when they are both dressed the same."

"But she was with Adam all night." Rosalie added, looking annoyed but slightly confused.

"Hmm," I thought about it. "Did any of you talk to 'Valerie' but she didn't have her engagement ring on?" I looked around the room, noticing Adams face of embarrassment- if he could pump blood around his body, his face would resemble a tomato. Everyone looked thoughtful, and then one by one shook their heads. "Right, so she simply wanted to talk to me, but wh-"

Suddenly the room swam and I was stood in front of Aro. I huffed realising Jeremy had been ordered to drag me here _again_.

"Aro," I whined, "I _do _own a phone you know."

"But you don't if I recall due to the fact you broke it."

"That wasn't me." I mumbled but he laughed, then turned sombre.

"Annabelle called and told me what happened."

"Why doesn't that girl listen to anything I say?" I mumbled, crossing my arms.

"That doesn't matter, but I'm checking that you know you may have to kill the children if anyone gets suspicious."

"Yes but will they? It was Halloween, it could be their imagination."

"Bella, their blood was drained, and only their throat was ripped out, from what Annabelle overheard the police found only a small pool, so it begs the question of my did an animal go for the throat but not eat the kill, humans may not know what is really going on, but they aren't idiots." I sighed.

"I know, but I don't want to do it, they are only sixteen."

"Bella, there'd be a war between humans and vampires, then who would die?" He said solemnly. "Just keep me up-to-date."

"I will."

"Good, next time I'll call you, but I know Carlisle wouldn't take to well to discussing this."

"Yeah, I lost my temper a bit and mentioned it, and he didn't like the idea." I frowned.

"Still his caring self then." Aro smiled, then shook his head. "Anyway who did it? You must have some idea."

"I think I know..." I paused, and he motioned for me to carry on, "Victoria." But there was blood and I was too thirsty to pick up a scent, so I was going to suggest going out and having a look, but I bet that with the twenty odd humans that had just milled around the area that it will be a waste of time."

"Try and find the vampire, but if you can't focus on the children for now. Get Lawrence to plant something gentle in their heads, so they think it was an animal, and then the police might give up."

"Will do. Jeremy, can you send me back now?"

The room began to swim and then I blinked and was back in the Cullen's house, I shook my head, adjusting to the sensation that was impossible to get used to. It's like your brain can't make heads or tails of anything around you and there is thick gauze in front of your eyes.

"Erm, where was I?" I mumbled then shook my head once again and looked around, I was sat on the sofa, with Alice on my right and Sam on my left, Adam was sat on the coffee table in front of me, but the person I noticed was Edward stood leaning against the fire with a look of pure relief on his face.

"You were talking about Victoria wanting to talk to you then you went all blank." Emmett replied from somewhere to my right.

"Oh right, but that can wait." I blinked once more, pleased to see my eyes completely clear then stood up regaining my balance and seeing everyone look sceptically at me, but Adam who could tell when I was about to run off- like how a cats tail twitches before it pounces, ran out the front door.

I leaped over the police tape and went straight to the bush, then ran until I couldn't smell the humans anymore and ran in a circle around that area, but picked up nothing, at least I expected it.

Now annoyed my cloak was wet for no reason, I trudged back to the house after half a dozen rabbits- which should keep me sated until tomorrow night. On the way I met someone sat on the forest floor leaning against a trunk, but when he saw me, he leapt up.

"Bella."

"You know what; my name is going to be worn out by Christmas if people keep saying it." I grumbled. "Anyway, where were you tonight?"

"I was banished by Alice and Rose, as they want to make it 'as easy as possible', but Bella, how can I prove to you I do love you?" He asked, walking up to me.

"Edward, I think I know you still love me, but I just can't trust you. You'll just have to wait." I looked into his eyes and saw them full of love, yet some pain.

"I will prove it one day you know, but I have forever to wait."

"That's nice." I patted him on the shoulder, and then edged around him, keeping hold of my cloak "But it _is _nice to know that your younger sisters can boss you about." I laughed.

"They don't. Anyway, why are you clutching your cloak so hard?" He asked a confused look on his face.

"Ah you may find out _one _day." I cackled and ran off home.

**sHssHs**

I pulled out of the Police station after having an hour of questioning. In the past week the drunken girl and boy were found to have not remembered anything, but were in trouble for getting drunk in the first place. Two of the three who were scared half to death, Lawrence had gotten to, and they think it was an animal, but the last one was convinced it was a person in a black cloak, which of course pointed to me. So naturally they had to call me back in, even though they knew no human could have inflicted a wound like that.

So no-one needed to die, as he wasn't being taken too seriously. I do feel sorry for him, he is only 16, but nothing can be done. But now Aro decided that I have to keep an eye on him, yay.

Under the pretence of seeing how he is, I pulled up outside his house and got out of my Audi while smirking at my reflection. Joanne decided to pick out my outfit for the day as she knew I was coming here, plus I lost a bet so she got to dress me for the day. Thankfully she does have a fashion sense. I was dressed in black skinny jeans, cream brogues, my favourite snake ring, my black leather jacket, a cream bag, but Joanne's contribution was the top, it was a vampire's mouth.

I slid my ray-bans on, as my eyes were still slightly orange, and I didn't want to distress him too much. Then strode towards the house he shared with his mother and older sister- she was in my year.

"Hello Marie." Great, his older sister opened the door, she had a crush on Adam, and when everyone thought we were a couple she became a teensy bit jealous.

"Hi Charlotte, how's your brother?" I asked warmly.

"He's been a lot better. What I think is interesting though, is the way you disappear for a month, then you come back, but no-one knows this until you come across Josh's body in the woods." She glared at me, the dark circles in her eyes the only give away of how tired she was.

"It _is _merely a co-incidence. Is Rob in?" I asked, keeping my voice cool, she was upset, I don't blame her.

"No." She scowled leaning against the doorframe. I sighed while hearing her brother pacing his room.

"I'll re-phrase, let me in Charlotte." I said, crossing my arms, and tapping my foot against their wooden porch.

"What were you wearing that night? A dark cloak?"

I glared at the seventeen year old, glad my ray-bans were firmly in place or she'd see my eyes unnaturally darken.

"Don't you think the police would have just arrested me if my story didn't add up?" I raised an eyebrow. "Besides I don't think your brother is crazy."

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "_Really_?" She looked behind her and stepped out on the porch pulling the door to behind her.

"Why? Do you?"

"I don't know. I want to believe him, but after the others' stories it does seem crazy." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I was so horrible, I want to believe him, so I thought if you gave away _anything_ then... I don't know."

"It's alright, and I hate to be insensitive, but I would like to see him."

She smiled and sat on the steps, "Go ahead."

I smiled back at her and slipped into the house, I slowly and loudly walked up the stairs, to announce my presence, but his pacing never faltered.

When I reached his room, the door was cracked open, and I saw Robert walking back and forth in jeans and a t-shirt, but is hair was all knotted and wild, he looked like he had two black eyes due to the lack of sleep, and his face was drawn, but his eyes were darting everywhere.

I knocked on his door and pushed it open slightly, he looked over and froze.

"Hey Rob."

"Erm, hi." He swallowed roughly and tried to look anywhere but at me.

"I just spoke to your sister, she's worried about you."

"No, everyone just thinks I'm crazy. Like you I'm guessing." He lifted an eyebrow at me.

"In a way, but if there's something that I have learnt, if people think you're crazy, keep it all to yourself and they won't think any more of it." I broke away from his gaze and walked across his room to his window and peered out.

"You've learnt that? You make it sound like personal experience."

I turned to look back at him.

"A _long _time ago."

"I doubt that you ever had any problems." He said with a tinge of jealousy, but I burst out into a fit of laughter.

"Ah, you don't know anything about me Rob, which isn't a bad thing." I mused.

"So do you believe me?" He asked hopefully after a moment of silence.

"I believe that you honestly think it happened, but as I said, pretence is valuable. Wake up tomorrow and act like you have forgotten everything and anyone you have met or learnt over this past week, it make take a few weeks, but act like your past self, and they'll think you just went into a weird form of shock and your brain erased everything distressing to you."

"But that doesn't erase the fact-"

"Rob, do you want your mom and sister to stop looking at you like they're afraid you'll snap? Do you want people to treat you normally? Then just do what I said, it'll make your life easier."

After a few minutes, he nodded slowly.

"Okay, wake up tomorrow and get ready for school completely oblivious to the fact that you have been given time off, and I know it's horrible but forget Tom died." He stiffened, but I carried on. "They'll probably freak out at first, but keep it up, they'll be glad in the long run. Got that?"

"Yes." He looked at me for a long time. "Why are you even doing this?"

"Because I feel sorry for you." I shrugged.

"There's something else..." His pale green eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Afraid not, now I must be going." Before he could reply, I had walked out the door and closed it behind me. By the time I had gotten to the bottom of the stairs, his door had opened and he was leaning over the banister watching me go. As I opened the door, I almost walked into Charlotte who was also walking through it.

"That was quick." She said surprised.

"Yes, I'm helping out at the retirement home." I lied smoothly.

"That's nice of you; I can walk you there if you want." She suggested.

"No thanks." I smiled.

"Well you can leave your car here if you want."

I looked at her confused, until she pointed at something behind me. That was when I saw the sign saying _Forks Retirement Home_.

I mentally cursed myself for being an idiot, but then turned back to Charlotte, whose head was still peeking out from the door and sent her a thank you, then ran across the road.

When I stepped through the door, the first thing I noticed was the smell, it wasn't what I expected- it smelt of flowers: roses, lilies, freesias, violets and blossoms. I looked down the halls and grew curious as to whether my old friends were here, I remember Miss Newton saying she visits her grandfather every Saturday here.

I decided to take the corridor on my right, and walked down, peering into each room, and saying hello if they noticed me, I didn't recognise anyone from the album Adam gave me, until the sixth room down.

They were sat in a chair by the window, and peering through their glasses at the newspaper. His hair was nonexistent, his face was sagging, he had a caved in look about him, but his eyes were bright and he whistled while he read.

I knocked on the door, and the old man looked at me, startled, and then relaxed.

"Sorry my dear, you reminded me of someone I knew a long time ago."

"I get that sometimes," I smiled at him. "I'm just helping out for an hour or so, would you like anything Mr Newton?"

"No thank you dear, I'm guessing the nurses forced you to memorise names," he gave a hoarse laugh which ended with a cough. "Are you only working here today?"

"I was going to... but if I come to like it, I might come more often." I grinned at him.

"Well if that does happen, you are very welcome to call me Mike, the formalities can end up a tad boring." He winked and returned to his paper for a moment, but then looked up over it and addressed me, "What name can I call you by?"

"...Marie."

He shook his head, "Small world." He smiled and I took that as my cue to leave. I saw a few I recognised from memory, but couldn't recall their names, I found that Jessica Stanley married a baker from California but moved here with their children about forty years but she died from cancer seven years ago.

Eric Yorkie married, of all people Lauren Mallroy, apparently he was the only one who could keep her in line, but they lived happily and married when they turned twenty. Unfortunately they died in a car crash in Nevada in their thirties.

The last piece of information I found, was about Angela Weber and Ben Cheney. They stayed together through graduation and married in their late twenties. Ben became a teacher, and Angela worked as a doctor. They ended up having four children. Ben died two years ago from heart problems, but Angela is still alive, but she prefers to live with her granddaughter.

It's amazing what you pick up in a few minutes of conversation.

So after a few hours, I decided to ask if I could volunteer every Sunday, I'll admit, the Nurses weren't pleased that I had been wandering around here in the first place, but they took my name down, and said they'd contact me.

When I got home, no-one but Adam was there.

"What's going on?" I asked, unzipping my Jacket, hooking it in the front closet and throwing my bag on the hall table along with my keys.

"They've all gone to the Cullen's."

"That's a surprise," I muttered under my breath. My family practically lived there now, soon they'll probably want to take the Cullen name.

"Don't be like that Bella, you left and we all made friends."

"And fiancées," I pointed out.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," he said, looking at his feet and fidgeting.

"What is there to talk about?" I shrugged and walked past him, and up the stairs. Feeling nervous, I had been avoiding this all week, trying to wrap my head around it, don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic for them, but it was a conversation I didn't think I'd be having with him so soon.

"Well what do you think?"

"I think it's great." I said, adding joy to my tone.

"Bella, honestly." He grabbed my wrist.

"Honestly, I'm really happy for you." I smiled and pulled him in for a hug.

"I wanted to tell you, I had it all planned out so you wouldn't freak."

I pulled away, playing offended.

"Me? Freak? They don't even belong in the same sentence."

"You want to start this argument now?" He smirked.

"I'll pass."

We both laughed.

"Well I'm going over there, are you coming?"

"I might."

"Annabelle is there."

"I'm staying." I answered quickly.

"Bella, if you were any nicer Carlisle would seem like the Grinch." He teased and I stuck my tongue out at him and carried on up the stairs while went the opposite way.

* * *

**I'm slowly getting back into the routine again :)**

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**Next chapter I will include the shopping trip with Alice.**

**Review please!**


	22. Shopping Demon

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* * *

**BPOV**

I honked my horn impatiently. Alice knew I was coming, she was the psychic for Christ's sake!

I waited for another 30 seconds then held my horn down until she came scurrying out the house.

"What the hell Alice?" I grumbled as he launched herself onto the passenger seat and pressed my foot on the gas.

"Sorry, I was erm... pre-occupied."

I looked sideways at her, and after a quick look at her face, it was pretty obvious what pre-occupied her.

"Urgh," I grimaced. "Ew, ew, ew, ew."

"Sorry." She smiled at me sheepishly while I shuddered.

"Blech." She better pay more attention if it affects her visions that much.

It was silent for ten minutes while I sped through the traffic.

"Thanks Bella."

"For what?" I looked over at her confused while I swerved around a lorry.

"For giving me a chance."

"Well, you're welcome...?" I wasn't quite sure how to respond, I think I had forgiven her but I didn't want to get her hopes up in case I suddenly turned around and said I wasn't sure, but she seemed happy and beamed at me.

"Carlisle and Esme are excited to talk to you."

Aw, guilt trip. I had avoided the Cullen house since Halloween and I hadn't apologised to Carlisle and I haven't seen Esme. I would have seen them last Saturday but I was in for questioning then also so I couldn't simply leave for a shopping trip when I should have been 'stressed' and 'distraught' after finding the boy's body.

Annoyingly it also made everyone at the school draw attention to me, the girl who disappears for a month then comes back the night someone days, but no-one notices me till afterwards, and now one of the people is saying they saw someone in a black cloak attacking them and I was seen running out the forest little more than a minute later wearing a dark cloak. Wow, when I say it like that no wonder everyone is a bit suspicious, but most of the adults believe it has to be an animal.

But Robert did as I asked, and quite well too. After some tests the doctors concluded that the past week was just shock, and they shouldn't force what happened back on him. He just has to go for a half an hour session every other week.

He seems okay, but I haven't seen him since last week, but I might check in tomorrow, I'm sure he hasn't really forgotten.

"Bella?" Alice asked, waving a hand in front of my face.

"Oh sorry, I was thinking." I shot her an apologetic smile, while pulling smoothly into a free space outside of Seattle's main mall. I looked back over and saw Alice's small frame shivering in excitement and a happy glint in her eye.

"Let's go!" She squealed and leaped out the car.

**sHssHs**

"Oh _please _Bella." Alice begged, her hands clasped at her chest. I pursed my lips and kept looking in the mirror, loving the dress but purposely annoying Alice.

"I don't know Alice. When would I wear it?"

"The Christmas Ball obviously." I raised an eyebrow at her, encouraging her to expand further. "It is a Ball we are all invited to on Christmas Eve, it's for the sponsors to a charity, each of us is allowed a plus one, but none of us have ever needed to, but there is eight in our family and eight in yours including Annabelle so it's perfect."

I frowned. "But what is everyone else wearing?"

"Well all of us have ours, it's just you." She smiled sheepishly, I rolled my eyes but felt the twinge of loneliness in my gut again. Thankfully it didn't show on my face.

"So will you get it then?" She smiled up at me. I huffed.

"Okay."

"Yay!" She clapped, "Now hurry up and meet me next door." She skipped off.

You might be wondering why she didn't insist on paying it. We have now been shopping for about five hours, and for the first two she insisted on buying everything, but now I have enough money myself I kept telling her no, but she wouldn't listen so I said I'd leave if she didn't agree, so she did, but not after already buying six bags of designer goods- a waste of money. Although this dress I could keep and wear it to one of the Volturi's parties and keep it for a century or so then bring it out again.

Humming, I changed back into my jeans and t-shirt, but just as I grabbed my dress and the three outfits I was going to pay for I saw another reflection in the mirror. I dropped everything so my hands were free and spun around.

"Isabella." Victoria nodded curtly.

"Victoria, firstly I must commend you on your acting skills, I didn't notice the difference." I clapped, noticing something different in her face but not able to put my finger on it.

"Sorry about that, but if you knew it was me you'd just attack me."

"Too right." I folded my arms. "So did you do your research?"

"A bit, I know you are one of the highest levels of the Volturi but all I know is that you are a shield. But there is something I'd like to ask you..."

"Shoot." I said, not in a hurry and satisfied by Victoria's body language to know she wasn't going to attack, although my shield was up just in case.

"Why didn't you kill me there and then? If you are such a high level member I'm guessing you could have killed me before I knew what was happening." She asked while her face showed simple confusion.

"Honestly, my emotions overrule me, but now they don't." I wasn't lying; Alec has helped me over the past month to remove any compromising emotions during battle, so I can simply block the ones I don't want so I'm not affected by anyone or anything. But I sighed that wasn't the complete truth and Victoria seemed to know it.

"Also, I understand." She cocked her head to the side, not understanding what I meant. "Your mate was killed and you were upset and angry. I'd do the same if... my mate died and take revenge too, so I don't blame you."

"Thank you Bella."

"Whatever Victoria," I sighed. "But why did you kill him? I know you feed on humans but that was in plain view of everyone, you could have exposed us all, in fact I'm still trying to clean up your mess."

"Kill who?" She said defensively. "The last person I killed was about a month ago and it was a homeless man in Port Angeles."

A month ago? I studied the colour of her eyes and saw the tinge of gold.

"You're drinking animal blood?" I said, my eyes widening in shock.

"Yes, I talked to a friend of mine who drank human blood, but then converted to animal, he told me how much more he could _feel_, as in emotionally, and I thought I would try it, I can always go back to drinking human if it bores me."

I nodded slowly, still reeling at the fact the vampire who seemed so ruthless is trying to be... good, but then I remembered what caused my shock.

"So if you didn't kill the boy, who did?"

"I don't know," Victoria said looking worried.

**sHssHs**

"Well that was successful," Alice grinned from the passenger seat, seeming pleased with herself.

"That's one word for it," I laughed. In the end I had purchased ten bags, and they included my full outfit for the Christmas Ball and numerous pairs of shoes and outfits, plus a 'super' prank kit for Joanne, some music for Jack, a new appointment book for Sam, a new dress for Kaiya, a watch Adam mentioned he wanted last week, a pair of shoes for Valerie and for Martiee and Lawrence, a picture for their room which they are currently redecorating. I admit, I felt guilty not getting the Cullen's anything, but Alice reminded that Christmas is in a month and a half so I can get presents then,

Whereas Alice came to the car with thirteen bags, seven was for her family and mine, apparently they now accept her buying stuff for them, and she was also getting another eighteen delivered to her home as my car couldn't fit them all.

She was a shopping demon.

"So are you coming over tomorrow?" She asked, almost too innocently.

"Possibly later, I have errands to run." I was warming to the idea that everyone was going to the Cullen's but I proposed last week that we spend week nights at our home, and the Cullen's can come over on Wednesday night, and then we can spend all weekend there. They argued at first, but after thinking about it agreed. I just seem to feel I don't know much about them anymore.

Have you ever been on holiday for a few weeks with your family, then when you return you hear all this news about things that have happened with your friends, and feel left out? Well that was how I had been feeling for the past two weeks, I hadn't mentioned this to my family of course, as I put myself in this position, but I think some of them are beginning to pick up on it since I suggested the idea of spending time at home.

"So who will be at the house?" I asked, pretending not to care, but I was really hoping if a certain someone was there, I hadn't talked to him since Halloween.

"Adam, Valerie, Jasper, Carlisle, and Esme. All the others are doing something prank-wise." Disappointment coursed through me, but I was determined it wouldn't show on my face.

"My family has been a bad influence hasn't it?" I smiled apologetically at her.

"Esme loves them messing around so she can tell them off when they get too bad, she thinks of them as family, like her nephews and nieces."

"Ah and her niece used to be obsessed over her son. Creepy." I laughed, but thinking about the copper haired vampire caused an ache in my gut.

"She more of thinks of Edward a bit more like a younger brother, as he was there first, but she still likes to take care of him. And she is protective of you and loves you, as does Carlisle."

I shifted uncomfortably, feeling that I should have gone to see the two of them a long time ago, but they were the nicest of them all and I couldn't wrap my head around how they left with even a goodbye.

The rest of the journey was simply small talk, Alice giving me fashion tips, and discussing gifts for Christmas. I even ended up inviting the Cullen's over for the celebration.

"Are you sure?"

"Why not? You guys don't really celebrate it; meanwhile we all go Christmas crazy. Besides Lorrie and Martiee are going to The Houghton's for this Christmas so we will be missing two."

"Thanks that will be nice." She smiled broadly at me and informed me about Christmas fashion trends, while I nodded and said 'Oh right' in the appropriate places.

When I pulled in, Jasper was sat on the porch with Adam, and I'm guessing they were sharing a joke as they were laughing so hard they almost fell off.

"Mind sharing?" I asked while retrieving the ton of stuff that belonged to Alice.

"Why did the monkey fall out the tree?" Jasper gasped, trying to collect himself.

"I don't know." I rolled my eyes.

"Be-be- because it was dead." Adam said in-between laughs, but this caused them to burst into new fits of laughter.

"_That _is why you are so hysterical?" I asked, exasperated with the two of them.

"Oh they don't actually think it's that funny." Valerie said stepping onto the porch. "They are trying to beat each other with jokes, but Jasper told Adam that and he just stared at Jasper blankly so Jasper used his power to make him laugh hysterically but it backfired and they have both been like that for the past hour."

I rolled my eyes and put my shield on the lowest setting so it would only shock them, then grabbed both of them by the wrists.

"Hey!"

"Oi!"

"Better now?" I stood over them with my arms crossed and one eyebrow raised disapprovingly.

Jasper nodded but then his wife jumped on his lap and began chatting animatedly about the trip, while Adam blew his blonde hair out of his eyes and glared at me.

"What?" I asked innocently, grinning. He dived for me and used my weakness.

"Stop!" I giggled while he tickled my sides, but giggling too much to stop him.

"Do you apologise?" He smiled.

"Yes! I'm sorry." I gasped.

"Good. What will all those bad vamps do if they knew they only had to tickle you to take you down?"

"They won't." I muttered and pushed him. Suddenly Jasper chuckled.

"She's sulking now."

I stuck my tongue out at him and stomped into the house, while the other three laughed along with him.

I found Esme sat in the living room looking at magazines of interior designs and noting things down. I looked over her shoulder and saw a floor plan.

"Wow, that's going to be amazing." I said, causing Esme to jump slightly.

"Sorry dear, I must have been concentrating on this. I love designing, I'm renovating a house, and they think it was built in the 1700's but no-one has lived in it for a few decades, it's going to be lovely." She smiled up at me, and patted the seat next to her.

I swiftly sat down and watched as she made some more notes.

"I'm sorry," I blurted out, she looked up at me, her eyes startled.

"What do you of all people have to be sorry for?"

"For not coming to see you sooner, and practically ignoring you and Carlisle." I looked down at my hands while I spoke, but jumped when Esme wrapped her arms tightly around me.

"Don't say sorry, _I_- scratch that, _we_ are sorry for all those years ago, we should have convinced him not to leave, or at least stayed behind ourselves." She hugged me tighter, and sniffled.

"Why didn't you stay?" I whispered.

"I don't know Bella, we just listened to Edward. We didn't even know what he had said until a few months ago, but that is no excuse. All I can say is that we _all _are sorry."

"I can vouch for that," Carlisle said from behind me, and his hand landed on my shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"If we could take it all back, we would." He said with a sad smile.

"Well I tell you one thing I'm sure about, I wouldn't. I suppose if you all hadn't have left me, Victoria wouldn't have changed me and I wouldn't have my family."

"I knew you loved us all really!" Adam whooped from the porch.

I laughed, but then heard two girls squealing and two guys yelling, I straightened up then saw a water bomb followed by flour hit the window.

"Don't get the car or you die!" I shouted but heard Joanne's cackle, "Joanne!" I growled jumping up off the sofa, and going outside but narrowly missed a bomb by diving behind the railing, where I ended up next to Edward.

"Hi." I said awkwardly.

He smiled and wordlessly handed me an armful of bombs. "Joanne?"

"Oh yes." We both jumped up and aimed for Joanne, successfully.

"Whoooo!" I cheered and fist pumped the air, but was then dragged down by Edward missing a bomb filled with ketchup. I was debating on how to get Emmett when Edward spoke up.

"Are you busy tomorrow?"

I looked at him, and saw nervousness written on his face.

"I have plans for the morning... why?" I asked warily.

"Do you want to do something? About 3PM?"

I knew my answer before he finished the sentence.

"Yes." I smiled then threw a mayonnaise bomb at his head and ran off laughing.

* * *

**Sorry it took forever, I've just been adding a paragraph or two when I could.**

**But it's my birthday tomorrow :) just thought I should let you all know ;)**

**I have added a picture of Annabelle and Bella's outfit for the last chapter, I will add the dress from this chapter when the Ball comes up.**

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	23. Pain in the past

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* * *

**BPOV**

"Oh my god, what's with the air freshener overload?" I complained, walking into Rob's room with my nose wanting to fall off with the stench of lavender. There's a fact, to vampires, lavender blocks the senses, unless someone's scent is actually lavender, but not many actually know that.

"Sorry," he grinned sheepishly, "I'll be less generous next time."

I waved my hand dismissively.

"So how's it been the past week?" I asked perching on his desk chair.

"Alright, nobody thinks I have lost the plot anymore, so that's a bonus."

"But..." I prompted, but a look was on his face, one that I couldn't place, but it seemed familiar.

"I don't mind lying." He said it very slowly, as if he was weighing the words while he said them.

"You're not lying though." He looked at me questioningly. "You are just confused about what happened that night, so technically you aren't lying."

"Marie. Don't." He said, sounding annoyed, but there was still that look in his eyes.

"Don't what?" I stood up swiftly; thankful that his family were out if he began to shout.

"Don't try to make me think I actually am crazy!" He stepped closer, almost touching. "I _know_ what I saw."

"What do you _think _that was?" I glared.

He opened his mouth to reply, but after happening what seemed to be an internal battle, then closed it and walked away. I took that as my cue to leave.

"Well I'll come back next Sunday, but if there is an _emergency_, call me." I put a slip of paper with my number on his desk. After seeing Victoria yesterday, I honestly believed she didn't do it, so another vampire was out there. So they'd come after Robert and possibly his family.

**sHssHs**

"Jacob! Hurry up, you aren't the only one with a life you know!" I shouted keeping a reasonable distance from the border, but not far from the main road.

"Technically you don't." Jake said, walking into view.

"Whatever, it was meant figuratively."

"Well long time no see," he folded his arms and looked behind me. "Well I see you have come alone, unwise."

"I can take care of myself, it seems you can't though." I smirked.

"I know you can take care of yourself, Charlie came here over a month ago and explained. Then when I went to see you, the blonde one... Andrew was it? Told me where you were. The Volturi, of all things." He spat.

"All they do is protect the peace between humans and vampires. Who do you think would lose if there was a war between vampires and humans?" He grimaced.

"But we'd stop you."

"I hate to say it, but if I'm against you, you'd lose. Besides if you did win, who's to say you wouldn't get tested by humans? Who's to s-"

"Okay I get it." He sighed, "Anyway, why did you want to meet?"

"To talk about the boy who was killed on Halloween."

"Well you said it was that red head, so what is there to talk about?"

"It wasn't Victoria."

"What do you mean?"

"It wasn't her, so I came here to ask if you had seen signs of another vampire in the area."

"Other than you guys," He shook his head, "no."

I growled under my breath. "I thought so, but hey, it was worth a try."

"So you haven't found anything either?"

"Zilch... I think I need to talk to Aro." I mumbled.

"Huh?"

"Oh nothing. Well if you find anything let me know, also do me a huge favour, unless you see Victoria actually killing someone, please don't attack her."

"The red head? Why?"

"Because she is trying to hunt animals instead." He face turned from emotionless to in complete surprise.

"Wow, _her_?"

"So will you?" I practically pleaded.

"I can't do that, unless she comes to live with you, it's only the Swans and Cullen's in the treaty."

"Thanks anyway. If I do, you'll know." I smiled, waved and turned to my car.

**sHssHs**

I quickly checked my hair in the rear-view mirror, feeling butterflies in my stomach, and a weird combination of wanting to turn around and drive straight home, and wanted to accelerate and get there as fast as possible. I applied a smidge of lip-gloss just before I came into view of the house.

"Bella, you are ten minutes late!" Alice chirped as I got out of the car. I rolled my eyes.

"I had a troubled teen and a irksome wolf to check up on," I lied smoothly, really I just took forever choosing an outfit, thankfully no-one was home to laugh at me.

"Those wolves are far more than irksome," Jasper said in his southern accent while grabbing Alice's hand.

I snorted at Jasper.

"You said I was ten minutes late, well-"I looked down at my watch, "- Eddie is twelve minutes and... five seconds late." I smirked as he appeared on the other side of my car.

"You were late first," He shot me a grin and jumped in.

"Oh. My. God. Did Edward Cullen just ride shotgun without an ounce of complaint?" Emmett exclaimed hanging upside down from the roof.

"Emmett what are you doing there?"

He grinned sheepishly at me and before he could explain I saw two familiar faces pop over the roof.

"Joanne. Jack. Let him down." I told them, crossing my arms.

"But-" Joanne began.

"No 'but's Joanne Louise Maxwell Swan." I shouted while glaring at her. I knew I should have been more specific when she grinned evilly and quickly undid the rope sending Emmett crashing to the ground. I groaned over the laughter coming from many vampires, noticing a large chuckle from Edward so reached in the car and smacked him on the head.

"Don't encourage them!"

Everyone, including Emmett, Esme, and Carlisle, burst into more laughter, well everyone but Edward who was rubbing the back of head with confusion.

"Do I look like Emmett?"

"If you did you would look super sexy, but you aren't super of sexy, so no." Emmett chuckled while dripping mud as he happened to land in a very large muddy puddle, but he stopped his chuckling when Rose did a mirroring of what I had just done to Edward.

"Anyway you two should get going!" Esme called running down from the porch and wiping her hands on a floury apron.

"Why are you cooking?" I asked as she gave me a light push towards my car.

"Just because I can't eat it, doesn't mean I can't cook it." She smiled and almost threw me in the car.

"Jeez Esme, trying to get rid of me or what?" I murmured as I started the engine and sped back down the drive.

"Sorry, they're just... excited."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his hand move towards mine, then freeze and withdraw back. I felt disappointed, but pleased in the way I knew he was trying.

"Thanks."

"For what?" He turned towards me, but I kept my eyes straight ahead.

"I know you're trying, and I appreciate it."

"That's the least I should do." He turned away and looked out the passenger window. I almost growled.

"Here's something you can do, stop sulking and tell me where we are going."

"Think of hiking and it'll come to you." He gave a crooked smile, while I frowned.

Then I thought that it was obviously somewhere I have at least heard of before. It hit me, and with a grin spread across my face I made a sharp U-turn.

"You do remember," he smiled in happiness.

"I remember a lot about my human life. Besides that particular memory is hard to forget." There was no need to mention the memory of Laurent when I went hiking and the wolves saved me. Why is it your memory always remembers the most horrible times?

"But there were good." Edward whispered to my right, I looked at him and saw the self hatred in his eyes. That was when it hit me I must have spoken out loud.

"I know. Yet as they say anything that is said before a 'but' is irrelevant." I said softly.

He nodded sharply, but was silent. I sighed and started out at the windshield watching the light drizzle make trails on it.

Less than a minute later I was parked and was getting out of the car. As I was about to close my door, I realised he wasn't following, so I leaned in and poked his arm.

"Coming or what?" I asked as he jolted as if out of deep thought.

"Oh, yes." Before I could unnecessarily blink, he was out the car and gently closing the door. "That was quick." He muttered almost to himself.

"I was driving at least three times the speed limit," I rolled my eyes and he frowned. "Next time I'll come on my bike." His frown deepened and I had to laugh. "Come on worry-wart if you want to get there before next year."

"Now that's not such a bad idea, stuck for a year in the woods with you." He winked and I stuck my tongue out.

"Race you." I grinned and shot off, with him hurrying less than a second after me. We were pretty much the same speed, so I decided to make it more exciting, and quickly darted up into a tree then leaped through the treetops; he quickly realised and climbed up about six trees ahead from when I entered. But by then I was already four trees ahead.

The rain had gotten heavier and I was getting quite wet in the tops, thankfully I thought to wear a coat. When I could see the meadow through the tree's I slowed down slightly, and a surprised Edward crashed into me, sending us flying through the tops and straight into the meadow.

I landed on top of him, and both of us were laughing madly.

"Well let's say it was a draw." He chuckled.

"Agreed."

Suddenly I stopped laughing. The sun had peeked out through the clouds, and caused the droplets of water in Edward's hair to glisten and sparkle like his skin. I could feel him breathing heavily beneath me, and smell his lilac and honey scent.

He reached up and brushed some hair from my face, as his fingertips graze my face, I could feel electricity flowing through them. It felt natural to lean in and kiss him.

It was like an explosion of feeling. I could feel everything he felt, and I knew I wasn't imagining it. I could feel the love and caring radiating from him as if it was seeping out of his every pore.

When I kissed others, that was then I realised I was trying to cover a hole but it was like a single pea trying to fill something the size of Russia. Having my family helped to fill it, and all my friends in the Volturi and out. There was still a huge piece missing, but I suddenly felt, for over seventy years, whole.

It was odd, and slightly scary. Because of this I pulled away, he looked startled but happy nonetheless.

"Why did you leave?" I whispered.

He sighed and with one hand he grabbed hold of his hair, while the other stroked my face. Meanwhile I kept utterly still, and stopped breathing scared that my new wholesomeness would shatter at any second.

"I panicked. When Jasper tried to kill you, all my worries came to the surface, and I realised a human couldn't live with vampires. I was stupid to even try. I thought that you'd be safer without us. So I told my family to go, they didn't want to go, but for some reason they did, then they wanted to say goodbye, I don't know what I was thinking when I told them they couldn't. If I'm honest I don't remember the finer details." He paused and took a deep breath. My eyes were fixed on his face, the way it was contorted in confusion and pain.

"So I knew I had to say goodbye, I could tell you were getting suspicious, and you told me how worried you were in your sleep. I knew it would take a lot for you to let me go, but until then I never realised how much." He put another hand to his head and closed his eyes.

"You believed me so easily." The grip on his hair tightened and I was beginning to worry he would actually pull it out.

"Edward." I softly said, but I don't think he heard me.

"I couldn't believe how easily you thought I didn't want to. It killed me when I had to confirm it. You honestly thought you weren't good enough, I could see it. I don't know what I was thinking, I thought if you wouldn't think that I was somewhere and I still love you, you would move on and live a normal human life."

"Edward," I said again slightly louder, while putting one of my hands on top of his, and tried to loosen his grip.

"I was an idiot. Alice even told me it wouldn't end well and vowed to hate me till the end of my existence. I even told them that they couldn't come back to even see you, because I thought that you might forget, so I couldn't have the reminders.

"Then one day Emmett came down the stairs and knocked me through the wall and tried to rip me apart, they tried to stop him until he told them why. You and your father had gone missing and as it had been many months, they declared you dead. I let him beat me up, it was the very least I deserved. I thought I would go to the Volturi, but they stopped me. How I tried to hate them for it, but I realised how selfish I was being, I was going to take the easy way out, plus you would have been so annoyed... once upon a time."

"Edward, if you did that, I'd find a way to bring you back so I could kill you myself." I put another hand on his so I was basically straddling him. I had never seen him show this much emotion, it was worrying that the man who I thought could take anything was crumbling.

"So many years went, and I felt like I was going through the motions, I missed you so much. There was part of me that hoped you were still alive, but there was the part that wished you weren't. Not because I didn't want you alive, but because of your soul."

"Stop it!" I shouted. I had begun to shake. I thought many years ago that I would enjoy seeing him in pain. But I couldn't stand it. "Just stop. Please." I tried to hold back sobs but one escaped, and that seemed to bring him back. He quickly let go and wrapped me up in his arms.

"Oh god. I'm sorry Bella." He sat up so I was on his lap and I hid my face in his shoulder.

"I guess I didn't really realise how much it hurt you too. If I'm honest I didn't think you even hurt at all."

"I hurt us both, and if I could take the whole thing back, I would. If there was any way I could have become human for you, I would have done it, without a second thought. I'd do anything for you Bella, what I did back then was unforgivable. I'm just hoping we can start afresh, and I promise I will never do anything like that ever again." He tilted my chin up so he could see my face.

"Okay. A fresh start." I smiled slightly and rested my head on his shoulder. "This meadow always seems to be a place where truth comes out."

He leaned back and shifted me so I was against his left side keeping one hand around my waist and the other behind his head.

"Well it is a surreal place."

We lay there in the middle of the meadow like that for a long time, and the rain was kept at bay for all that time.

"I was just thinking, if we did end up staying together, you would be Adam', Valerie's, Kaiya's, Sam's, Jack's, Joanne's, Lorrie's and Martiee's dad." I looked up at him and saw a slightly scared look on his face.

"Maybe you could still be their mom, but I be more of a friend/family member?"

I laughed.

"I could live with that, and I'm sure they'll be pleased with my toy-boy."

"Pur-leaase, I'm a hundred years older!"

"But you were changed at seventeen and I was eighteen."

"You know how ridiculous that is don't you?" He laughed.

"It makes sense to me," I shrugged, smiling.

"Well we all know how you're not _all _there."

"Oi," I smacked him on the arm, sat up and looked at my watch. "Wow, Seven hours. Time flies."

"We can stay for longer."

"No we can't, they've been waiting in the bushes for the past half an hour." I whispered low enough for only him to hear.

"I know," he smiled wryly and tapped his head.

"Escape or fight?"

"Fight, every time."

"Good luck with that then," I stood up and ran off giggling, but he caught me round the waist before I could reach the edge of the meadow.

"Oh no you don't," He breathed in my ear.

Luckily though I was paying attention to my surroundings, because I managed to duck in time to miss a face full of egg.

"Karma is a bi-" I stopped as I ended up with blue paint hitting my coat and I growled and turned to my attacker.

"Lawrence! Do you know how much this coat cost?" I growled and leaped on him wrestling another paint bomb off him, and hitting him in the face.

I wrestled another off him, looked around for a target and saw Annabelle shouting gleefully at Edward who had just had his chest made pink. I threw it and hit the bull's eye. Baked beans straight in the cake hole.

Before I could get laughter out I was hit in the back of my head with squirty cheese.

"Hey Bells. Enjoying your day?" Adam said, booming laughter while running into the woods, I followed him determined to get him back, but before I could catch up to him, I got a call.

"Hello?"

"_Bella. I need your help."_

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**Any question? I might not answer some but i will try my best :) **

**Review please.**


	24. The Prestige

**Thanks:**

**lovedrunker |DanielleSimone| **marianna** | kirsty21 | x-Ruth-Finch-x | Fee-sha14 | Lionnara | twilightfreakhmt | heyfa | HisBabyGirl165 | Queen Cupcake**

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**BPOV**

"Joanne. What's wrong?" I thought back and vaguely remembered that Joanne wasn't in the ambush, that's unlike her.

"_Can you meet me at the diner or something?" _She sounded agitated, which caused me to immediately run to my car.

"Okay, I'll be there in a few."

I got there in four minutes as it was on the fringes of the town. I walked in and saw Joanne fidgeting in a secluded corner.

"What's wrong?" I looked her over, checking she hadn't been attacked, but stopped when I looked at her face. Then it all clicked.

I had to pinch the bridge of my nose, to help keep my anger at her in. So that's why she picked a public place.

"Why? _Why would you do that?_" I hissed, and saw a flash of shame, but it was replaced with determination.

"You can talk." She snorted, folding her arms.

"I'm not the vampire. It hurts the human in the end."

She dropped her gaze, and clasped her hands together on the table, then looked at them.

"I will _not_ hurt him."

"You say that now Joanne, but Edward didn't think that, he thought a small hurt would help in the long run. He broke many promises to me that day he left." I took a deep breath and put a hand over hers. "Just ask me before you do anything rash, because if you hurt that kid... well let's hope it doesn't come to that." I smiled at her when she looked back up, and seemed to relax.

"Thanks mom." She smiled back.

"So why call me? And not twin two? Saying that does he know?"

"No-one does, but Rob obviously. I wanted you to know because, you've been in his position so you can help, plus he likes you more than the others. He sees you as more... grounded."

I snorted. "Well that's one word for it."

"Well he's more like Sam or you, compared to me, but he doesn't know Sam very well. Anyway I was hoping you wouldn't tell anyone..."

"Joanne." I groaned and rested a hand on my forehead. "I think we should tell them, if I'm honest you know that now you have told me, you will have to change him in the next year or two, or I'll have to kill him." I stared at her willing her to understand how serious this is.

"I was thinking that if you knew, then Aro found out, it might be okay, at least until he graduated, because you could 'keep an eye' on him."

I grimaced, not liking it, but Aro might be okay with it as long as he doesn't speak of it to Caius.

"Okay, but I'll only keep quiet till Annabelle's gone. She is like Caius' pet."

"Yay thanks B- Marie." She squealed and hugged me.

I suddenly heard movement from the booth behind me, so I shot my arms around and pulled them around here.

"Adam, what do you think you are doing?" I growled shaking his shoulders.

"I followed you, I heard you get a call and heard that there was something wrong with Joanne, so I got worried too and came here."

I let go and sighed.

"You are too nosey for your own good." I said dejectedly, but shot him a small smile. "I'm glad you care about your family. Which shows that you will keep this quiet."

He looked at me shocked.

"Of course I will."

"Even Valerie?"

"I..." He looked confused for a minute them let out a gust of air. "Yes, it can't hurt."

"Thanks Adam." Joanne smiled, and I received a text off Lorrie.

_Where are you? Is Adam with you? Are you okay?_

I text a reply of- _With Joanne, yes and yes._

"Adam can you go home and stop them getting super suspicious while I help straighten this out."

He nodded.

"Thanks." I smiled, gave him a hug and he swiftly exited.

I looked as Joanne, waiting for what to do next.

"We can go over to see him?"

"Great, as long as I can have my fun." I grinned and knew my eyes would flash black.

"I don't think that'd be a good idea." She said warily.

"Just scare him a bit. Please." I clasped my hands in front of me, pleading.

"Fine. Just don't scare him too much."

I shrugged and slid out the booth. "Coming?" I called over my shoulder.

She huffed and followed me out to my car.

Once I had reversed out of my spot, I spoke.

"So why now? Why not before? Or later?" I looked over at her, and she shrugged.

"I knew Jack was getting suspicious, and the first person he'd go to is you, and I'd rather you know than he did at this stage in time, because, well I explained that before."

By this point we had reached his house. I listened and heard Rob, along with his mother, sister and two others.

"Looks like I'll have to enter though the front door. Wait here, it'll be obvious you told me if you're there."

She nodded and I walked at human pace to the front door.

But before I could knock, Mrs Cartwright opened the door.

"Well it was nice to see you Aunt Bella," She said. I froze involuntarily. Joanne must have been listening before she quietly appeared at my side and tried to tug me away.

"It's fine, mom wanted to see her great grandchildren and I wanted to see my niece, besides I'm only back in town for a week and I'm giving Mary the-" they seemed to noticed us by that point, as we hadn't moved away.

"Oh my, sorry. Joanne, it's nice to see you again," Mrs Cartwright smiled at her warmly then turned to me. "Marie is it? Aren't you her guardian?"

"Yes but I prefer sister." I smiled. "I'm sorry I didn't realise you had visitors."

"It's fine we are leaving anyway." Said the woman who was called 'Aunt Bella'. She had a natural prettiness even though she had to be at least sixty. Her hair was a short silvery colour and she had honey brown eyes. As I was watching her she looked behind her and when to help a slightly stooped figure.

"Isabella, I'm fine stop mommy-coddling me." Came a strong voice. The woman was about ninety. Was there was of her hair was swept up in a head scarf. She had many wrinkles but there wasn't skin hanging from her frame. She did walk with a cane, but she still looked very strong. Yet I didn't feel anything until she looked at me, but it caused me to freeze and my mind to reel, not in shock but almost in glee.

"Bella." The old woman breathed.

"Yes mom?" Her daughter asked, thinking she was talking to her.

"Not you dear, her." She pointed to me. "It's Bella."

Her daughter looked at me apologetically.

"No mom, she died years ago, remember?"

"What's this about?" Joanne asked. I never told her about my friends in my human life, as I didn't really remember them, they seemed unreal after all the moments with Edward.

"I'm sorry, she had a friend when she was a teenager but her and her father went missing, they were never found and I was named after her and my brother, her father, my father thought well of her too, they were all good friends." She smiled sadly then helped her mother away, while she stared at me with a glimmer of happiness in the old eyes.

"Would you like to come in?" Rob's mom asked. I patted Joanne's arm distractedly.

"Why don't you go in and if it's alright with Mrs. Cartwright I'll come and pick you up in an hour?"

"That's fine, but please call me Emma."

I smiled at her, and without waiting for a reply from Joanne, ran towards my car.

I followed at a discreet distance behind the old ford across town, and when they pulled up outside a large house with ivy crawling up the sides and the back facing the forest, I pulled over on the forest edge almost opposite the house.

Just before the pair reached the door, it was opened by a girl of about twelve who looked exactly like Angela did.

I ran at human pace up the path so when they reached the door I was at the steps.

"Hey, wait." I walked up the five small steps while the two older women turned around.

"Marie? What are you doing here?" Bella looked worriedly at her mother then back at me, with an air of confusion.

"If was alright with you and your mother, I was wondering if I could talk to her?" I tried to make myself look nervous; I was mainly trying to mimic what the humans did when they approached us.

"Well it has nothing to do with me," Bella said looking pointedly at her mother, who was looking at me with pursed lips.

"That's fine, we can go to the study." She turned and hobbled into the house past, what I would of guessed, her great granddaughter.

I stood there for a moment, unsure of how her daughter was going to take it, but she b=gave be a wry smile.

"You better hurry, she doesn't like to be kept waiting."

I walked swiftly past the two women and followed my old friend through a narrow hallway behind the stairs, until we reached a door at the end which she opened easily and slid in, I followed and then she closed the door behind me.

The study was nice and cosy, with dark wood panelled walls, a built in bookcase covering one of the walls, there was a bay window looking out onto the garden with a pond at the end. Opposite the wall of books, a fire was already raging in the hearth, and Angela was lowering herself into a large chair beside it, she motioned to the chair the other side, which I sank into.

"So what is it you want to talk to me about?" She asked, leaning back into her chair comfortably.

"You seem very... intuitive. What do you think I am here to talk to you about?" I raised an eyebrow curious to see what she would think.

"Well it's plainly obvious you are here about what my daughter said about my old friend." She paused and I nodded for her to continue. "And at the moment I can come to two conclusions. Either you are a direct relative of Bella Swan, so she and her father mysteriously left without a word to anyone and never told anyone, but would lead to the question as to why you are in Forks now with you the legal guardian of six children, or you are really Isabella Swan." She said the second theory with the most belief and acceptance, which surprised me.

"You've thought about this." I murmured and she smiled.

"I haven't just come up with this on the spot you know. The talk was all over the town about the new family, I've seen you around town, I wasn't sure and I never got close enough, so it surprised me tonight how alike, I admit I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but then the Cullen's came into town and your family disappeared for a bit. The odd thing was that I seemed to be the only one who remembered them, I talked to Mike about it and he stared at me blankly, it was when I saw the doctor that I realised something odd was going on, but I still have enough sense in the old mind of mine to keep quiet, if I was meant to know something, I will eventually.

"But for a month it was quiet, but the talk my great grandchildren kept bringing home about the two most beautiful groups becoming good friends, but how odd it was that they looked like siblings with their pale skin and golden eyes, yet how they had noticed how the one who was visiting family in Italy had the pale skin but different eyes.

"I finally clicked it together not long after Halloween, my great-grandson came to visit, he was a wreck and my granddaughter didn't know what to do, he was raving about cloaks and red eyes, for some reason I did believe him, I guess you could call it... intuition," she gave me a wry smile then carried on.

"But one day he came over raving about how a girl from school came over and tried to force him to forget what had happened and that he didn't know what to do, when he explained it I thought that he should do as this 'girl' told him, a gut feeling that something bad would happen otherwise. So I told him to play along, but if something happened he should come and see me.

"He didn't see me till the Thursday yet something was different, I assumed it was because no-one treated him like he was insane, but there was something else. He was frantic with excitement. He knew what killed his young friend, he had researched it, plus he had been looking out for clues, then it all added together." She stopped and smiled gently.

"You're not stupid Bella, you never were."

I jumped up and began to pace near, but not too close, to the fire. My brain had been whirring since she started this story. A complete mistake this has all been, we had been too obvious, we had come to a town too soon after the last vampires who had inhabited the place had been. Too dangerous.

"So what am I then?" I growled, continuing my frantic pacing but not meeting Angela's eyes.

"A Vampire." She said calmly, as if she was merely telling me she had just put the washing outside to dry.

I saw red in my anger, not at Angela. At my stupidity that means I'll probably have to kill her and her great-grandson because I came back.

"Well that's perfect." I hissed.

"Bella, calm down, I'm not going to tell anyone and neither will Robert."

"Doesn't matter, by law I have to kill you. By my job I'm obliged to kill you." I couldn't stand it if I was the reason my friend was killed.

"Your job?"

"When I left for that month..." I said distractedly, trying to figure out how to get out of this mess, I couldn't leave, that would raise more suspicion than it's worth, plus there is a rogue vampire who no-one can track killing humans.

"Yes but what is it."

"I kill those who break the rules, well I sometimes bring them back to them, but that's, about one in two hundred."

"_One in two hundred_?" Her change in tone made me come out of my frantic state and actually take note of what I had been saying.

"What do you expect? I've been with them for about sixty years, well that's since the day I joined them."

"Who?"

I sighed and leant against the fireplace.

"Well it couldn't get worse..." I muttered to myself. "Basically I work for the leaders of the vampires. They enforce the law, there are a few, but there is the biggest no, no for which the penalty is death. Never reveal the secret, well there is another but it's not relevant. But I'm part of a... team who find those who have broken the most upheld laws. Before you ask it's done to keep the peace between vampires and humans. Mainly so the humans don't go crazy again and try to kill us, and then fail. Thankfully god old Bram wrote a ridiculous story about us which made people look at the wrong people."

"Well it makes sense I suppose." Angela murmured entwining her fingers and staring at her lap.

"Really? Wow, normal people would freak." I laughed, I part of my vampire mind registered that it sounded slightly hysterical but that was the least of my worries.

"I've seen strange things, and a lot of them, plus I'm old Bella, so I know when to argue and when to not. This time is not." Her brown eyes sparkled at me, which brought some youthfulness to her worn face.

"I've missed you Angie," I smiled wistfully, my mind remembering the fuzzy images of us as friends all those years ago.

"Same here." She smiled back, but then a thought came to her. "Have you been back to your old house yet?"

"Erm, no. Well Adam went and found my photo album a few weeks ago." I shrugged, "Why?"

"After you were both classed as dead, your mother was listed in the will for the house but she understandably didn't want it, so I talked to her and she agreed that I could have it, but she didn't want payment, she just didn't want reminders, as she said, 'I have everything I need in my memories, material goods are almost useless'. So really I just kept it tidy, I don't know why, I suppose it was in case you one day came back. But one of those days, about forty years ago, I found something which I think you would like, but I think it's best for you to go there for yourself, you'll find it. Some things have even been added to it since I first found it." She stood up and patted my cheek. "It's been far too long Bella but I'm glad I saw you again, the Lord does work in mysterious ways."

Of course, her father was the town's Pastor, it's no surprise she's religious, I gave up on all that about five years after I became a vampire. I admit I wasn't very religious in the first place, but I believed in God. I suppose after living the life I believes I didn't possess a soul anymore, that wasn't the same about my family, I believed with all my being, or what was left, that they have their souls, I still do. I guess I do believe in God, but I resent the fact that I became like this.

Once I believed I didn't own a soul, I guess that was when I gave up. Why fight my bloodlust? I couldn't control it like my family could, they managed to control it after two years, whereas I was still trying after seven.

I gave my family the choice of what diet they wished to take and they all chose animal, which I was relieved about, they must have souls, they shouldn't squander them, from then on, I pushed them to do the right thing, yet still have fun, like you can stop Joanne anyway. I love them to bits, I would do anything to protect them, and so I joined the Volturi, mainly to protect them from those vampires who don't have souls either, like the ones who enjoy the kill and pain to the humans. Especially humans like Angela who are just _good_.

"Thanks Angela." I put a smile on my face, vampires are good actors and as my thought only lasted about five seconds, she didn't suspect anything. "Well I must pick Joanne up, I'll come see you soon."

She just smiled and left the room, leaning on her walking stick. "Bye Bella." She pulled the door to behind her.

I took that as my cue to leave so I followed her and with thanks to Angela's daughter I left, feeling almost happy that I got to see my old friend again, yet sad that it had been so long.

After what Angela had told me, I thought I'd take a quick trip to my house as Joanne was almost up the road.

I pulled up in the drive, and it felt almost like déjà vu, it looked like my cloudy memory remembered it, except the trees and grass were more wild and the roof was in slight disrepair, but otherwise I could have been here yesterday.

I decided to just enter via the front door using the key under the eave, which was ridiculously rusty by now, and the lock was stiff but opened.

I walked slowly through the house, laughing at some of the photos on the walls of me as a goofy looking child. There always seemed to be a bruise or graze on my body in the photos, at least I lost my clumsiness, well when I panic I tend to trip over thin air, but that's rare now.

I eventually reached the last room in the house which was my old bedroom, the door was open a crack and with a loud creak it opened, the yellowed lace curtains were hanging in tatters from age, the pale blue walls had some damp emerging, but the wooden floors were still tidy, my books were still on the shelf, but what drew my eye was a floorboard near the window, it was out of place, a corner was tilted upwards. I swiftly walked towards it and knelt on one knee in front of it while lifting it out, what I found made me gasp in surprise.

Nestled in that little hole were seven things. Firstly was a rectangular box which had plane tickets almost seventy years outdated. Secondly were three photos, one was in the living room downstairs where Edward sat in the chair and my father on the sofa, my father looked surprised but Edward looked emotionless, I shuddered and put that to one side. The second photo was one of Edward outside his home with his crooked smile, there was a amused look in his eyes, I smiled at that one and slipped it in my back pocket, the last photo was ripped in half, the half that was left was Edward with a smile and almost blank eyes, but a glint of something I have seen many times today, I guess I never noticed it with my human eyes. Next I pulled out a circular jewelled case which had a CD inside, excitedly I ran over to my desk and put it in my CD player, quickly my room filled with a sweet melody which I recognised as my lullaby, venom that would never spill came to my eyes.

He never took them; he kept them here the whole time. I felt a rush of love towards him, I knew what he said was true in the meadow, but this proves how much and re-enforces the fact he loves me.

As my lullaby ended and Esme's song began, I ventured back towards the hole in the floor to see the last two things left.

I reached in and pulled out a small black velvet bag, I opened it up and pulled out a silver bracelet, there were two charms hooded onto it. One of the charms was silver and in the shape of fur trees and had a Spartan helmet on it, engraved on the helmet was _Forks High '08_. It must have been a graduation charm from the school. The second charm was a heart, which some may have thought was crystal, but after close inspection it was a huge diamond, I gasped wondering how much this huge rock would have cost. I clasped the bracelet onto my wrist, smiling at how the diamond sparkles in the light and the likeness of it and a vampire.

I was still looking at it while I reached back into the hole to retrieve the last item when a voice spoke up, less than two feet away, which caused me to expand my shield around me and leap backwards into a crouch.

"Cold, and hard like me."

Once my brain had registered who the voice belong to I straightened up.

"You really shouldn't do that," I scolded him. "I could end up hurting you."

"I'll take my chances." Edward said with his crooked smile and reached into the hole and pulled out a small old looking black box. "Angela must have added that one," he gestured to the graduation charm on my wrist while straightening up.

"I'm guessing you know I talked to her this evening then?"

"Well Joanne said you followed her home so I added two and two together and used my brain to think about who would do that and it's pretty easy." He leant gracefully against the wall by the window throwing the box up in the air and catching it teasingly.

"Cocky. What do you mean Joanne told you?" I asked trying to make my eyes focus on his face and not on that small box.

"She came back to the house an hour and a half ago, and you were meant to 'pick her up' two hours ago, and you haven't been answering you phone, so everyone's been getting paranoid, what with Victoria around and all."

"So _everyone _was paranoid were they?" I smirked and crossed my arms.

"Everyone but Lorrie, as you can 'kill anyone if they so much as looked at you wrong'." He chuckled but then his face went dark, "but I know what you meant, and yes I was very worried."

My smirk changed to a smile and I walked over to him and put my arms around his neck.

"Thank you for caring even though it was completely unnecessary." I went on my tiptoes and kissed him, pleased when he embraced me tightly and kissed back with a passion. I pulled away after a few minutes.

"Usually you were the one to pull away." I laughed still breathless from the kiss.

He pouted but still kept his arms tightly around my waist. "Exactly, I think we should keep the tradition."

"Nu-uh, one thing will lead to another. What kind of a woman do you think I am Mr Cullen?" I teased. "Anyway what's in the box?"

Suddenly I got the impression that if vampires could blush, Edwards face would look severely sunburnt.

"Erm, nothing." He tried to pull his arm behind him, but I grabbed it and brought it in-between us.

"Wow it must be important if you've gone all embarrassed, come on less than twelve hours ago you were spilling your heart out to me, and now you can't show me what's in a little box?"

"How about I'll show you when I feel it's appropriate?"

Now it was my turn to pout at him, but he looked like a little kitten pleading.

"Fine, but it better be soon." I pecked him on the lips and untangled myself from him, then collected the CD, photos and tickets along with anything I saw around my room.

"Let's get back." With my possessions in one arm, I grabbed Edwards hand and led him out, smiling as I closed the door behind me.

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**I have one word for you which will hopefully explain why it's so late- school. But I hope I made up for it with this 11 page chapter, easily the longest I have written. **

**I now have an ending formed in my head but I don't know how long it'll take to get there.**

**Please review, it makes my day!**


	25. Sellotape and Jobs

**Sorry it's been about a month. Settling in to school and breaking the computer didn't bode well. But to make up for it I have written two chapters! :) **

**The second chapter is from Roberts POV as I had some reviews confused about his and Joanne's relationship. But if anyone has any picture which show how they imagine Robert please tell me as I keep looking and can't find something that fits.**

**Again thanks to:**

**Elizabeth Masen7726 | JezzyMillers | LillySky | AliceRosalieBellaCullen1234 | beco44 | FiveStarReader | Queen Cupcake**

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**BPOV**

"It's going to be obvious if you keep looking at him," I murmured warningly to Joanne while I read a book in the school Cafeteria.

It has been a month since Joanne told me and there was now only two weeks till Christmas, and Annabelle was still tagging along. Thankfully the mousey haired girl helped Esme in the day so I get a certain amount of peace.

She quickly looked away and looked at me instead.

"Well you could just tell them." I shrugged looking at the rest of our group, which were my family and the Cullen's, but they were all helping to plan a wedding. Speak of the devil.

As I mentioned the wedding the two lovebirds strolled into the cafeteria grinning sheepishly at each other.

Emmett let out a wolf whistle before Rosalie smacked him for being immature, but she had a smile on her face.

"What are you all doing?" Adam asked when he reached our table.

"Planning your wedding, as you have done zilch." Jack said excitedly.

"You have been supervising right Marie?" Adam asked, I looked up from my book with a grin and shrugged.

He groaned and flopped down into one of the free chairs.

"I have faith in them, but if it makes you feel better, I stopped you both sky diving to the isle." I winked as he looked stunned and slightly scared.

"Hey! I was protesting too. It would just _ruin_ Valerie's hair." Alice said, flapping her face with her hand as if she too was horrified

"Yeah but we listen to Marie, not annoying pixies." Lorrie added causing the table to erupt into laughter, even Alice.

"That's true." She giggled.

I looked at Joanne who looked glum. She had been seeing Robert whenever she could get away in the evening and she was becoming more and more attached to him and staying for longer and longer. I was having to comfort Jack more and more often as it seemed that his twin and partner in crime was ignoring and avoiding him.

I looked at Jack, and he was talking animatedly about balloons and flowers, but I did see him glance a Joanne and look hurt, obviously no amount of reassuring would convince him.

I also glanced at Rob, who was looking at Joanne in longing and sorrow. That was when I decided to forget about my worries with Annabelle.

I sighed and closed my book throwing it on the table in front of me and stood, while walking towards the doors to the field gesturing for Joanne to follow me. On the way I caught Edward's eyes which looked confused and gave him a small smile and wink.

When Joanne and I were far enough to not be heard by nosey vampires, I stopped and turned to face her under the frozen boughs.

"Joanne, honey. You need to decide, I admit I'd rather you said after Annabelle had left, because it's likely she'll inform Aro, Marcus and god-forbid, Caius. But you are miserable, Jack is miserable and most of all Rob is." I grabbed her hands, as her eyes had diverted towards the earth. "I know how difficult it is to be with a vampire remember, and I'm just relieved he is not your singer so there is less of a risk for him, but things can get so much worse and I can't see you hitting walls so early on. You love him right?"

She bit her lip, and her eyes filled. "I think I do, although I don't want to, because I don't want him to become a vampire."

"I understand, but you love him, and he has to be able to make that decision for himself, Edward made decisions for me and look how well that turned out! Don't make the same mistake."

She nodded and flung herself into my arms for a hug.

"I want to tell everyone, but I don't know, I guess I have a gut feeling."

"An instinct? Hm?" I rubbed her back while staring thoughtfully over her shoulder. "What exactly is your instinct telling you? Tell no-one?"

"No." She sniffed. "To tell Jack, but I'm not sure about anyone else. I don't know why only him... maybe it's just a gradual thing, she's quite nervous of any vampire but you and I after Halloween."

"Understandable." I mused. "So we'll tell Jack." A small part of me now felt relieved that she felt she could tell someone, it just depends on how he'll react.

**sHssHs**

I found Jack at Edwards piano at the Cullen's after school.

"Not even I can save you if you break that."

With a _thwack_ he jerked his head up out of the sleek black piano cracking the lid, and making a resonating clash of notes to accompany it.

I winced but then but my lip to prevent a laugh at Jack's horrified face.

"I just wanted to irritate him, not cause him to be murderous." The amount of worry in his voice caused a huge bout of laughter to overcome me, and so when Edward came downstairs he saw me leaning against a wall for support while doubled over with laughter, the lid of his piano cracked in four places and Jack stood beside it looking scared while holding sellotape.

"JACK!" He thundered storming forwards, causing Jack to make a little _eek_ and run off with Edward catching him up on the last porch step, Jack threw him off using his strength and it proceeded like that for the next few minutes moving round the front meadow at about seven steps at a time, which just caused me to laugh harder.

At some point after they had both wrapped tape around each other's heads, Carlisle came home (everyone else but Joanne were at my house) and broke them up after a slight chuckle, but then after looking at them he broke out into huge guffaws, Edward and jack had wrapped the tape tightly and looked like Jim Carey when he was in _Yes Man_.

While Carlisle and I were laughing hysterically, once again, they looked at each other, huffed and walked off in opposite directions.

It took a while but Carlisle and I eventually calmed down.

"You family never ceases to brighten ones day." He smiled largely at me after giving me a quick hug.

"Me neither and I've basically been with each of them since they changed." I then looked over his shoulder and called. "Jack are you going to sulk, or come here so I can untangle you without you ripping your hair out?"

There was a sigh and he came out the trees and walked up to me, I had to fight with everything I had to not laugh, but I managed.

It took about five minutes but I eventually managed to unwrap the sellotape from his head and simply left his hair in a sticky dark tangle.

"Now I actually came here to tell you that Joanne wants to talk to you in about two hours in my old house. Know where it is?" He nodded. "Good, now go home, order Edward a new piano and join in the games I think they're near the hills in the east."

He nodded again and with a smile and wave to Carlisle and I, he left. I then wandered into the house after Carlisle intending to find Edward where he was bound to be sulking.

"You're good with them." Carlisle turned to me after placing his bag on the coffee table before I reached the stairs.

"Well I'm like their mom, just you're like Edwards, Alice's, Jasper's, Emmett's and Rosalie's dad. Someone needs to look after them." I shrugged leaning against the banister.

"That's true." He gave a short laugh then turned sober. "Do you ever feel guilty for changing them?"

"You didn't turn Alice and Jasper." I pointed out.

"True, but do you?"

I sighed and folded my arms. "Of course I do, who wouldn't? But then I think about what may have happened without them. Call me selfish, but I wouldn't change it, god knows what monster I would have become otherwise."

He smiled slightly.

"Glad someone else feels the same; I feel guilty yet if I was given another chance I wouldn't change my mind. Rosalie hates being a vampire but she wouldn't want to be human without Emmett." He walked past me and hung his coat in a closet behind the staircase. "Is your phone broken?"

I looked blankly at him. "Huh?"

"Aro. He said he tried to call you, but he got no answer then he tried to call Annabelle and he couldn't get an answer, he thought he'd call me before he sent half the Volturi to find you. That's why I was home early, so I think it would be wise to phone him back before he gets too worried. He smiled and retreated upstairs to his office.

I sighed knowing how stressed out Aro would be, he does care about us like a family, but I think he can wait a bit longer. So I went upstairs and found Edward stood in front of the mirror trying to get the sellotape off.

"This stuff is strong." He grumbled still trying to yank it off.

"Yeah one of the boy's creations, I've had many a tantrum involving this stuff.2 Walked over and started to pull the tape in its weak spots (ones that I had designed for situations like this). "They enjoy this kind of 'joke' so I've had experience in untangling." I smiled over his shoulder into the mirror, and his face looked less glum.

"You know the other day when I disappeared for a few hours after our trip in the meadow and you found me in my old house?" He nodded. "Well I saw an old friend," I smiled and looked at his shocked face. "Before you say anything I didn't go looking for her, I went to see Robert and she was leaving, he is her great-grandson, and I just had the urge to talk to her."

He turned around and smiled back. "I'm not saying it was a good idea, but did it go well?"

"Yes. But I think my family will move on after the school year is up, she knows what we are, she guessed. We can't make mistakes or I'll have to somehow destroy the town." I sighed as I pulled the last few bits of sticky plastic out of the even messier copper hair.

"We'll leave, although we love it here, it is too soon. We knew that but we didn't think about that aspect."

"No it's fine our families can't stay together much longer anyway." I pulled away and sat on his sofa, pulling my legs up and wrapping my arms around them.

"What's that meant to mean?" He asked with some accusation in his voice.

"What can I do? I can't leave them and we can't all stay together."

"You could-"

"No, I can't leave them, I do feel like their mother. Sure Lorrie and Martiee can stay with Aimee and Ash in Pechora or James And Gabrielle in New Zealand but I'd want them to come back, I'd miss them. They also can't-"

"Bella, be quiet for a minute please." I shut-up; I could tell he was on the verge of losing his temper, not at me of course. "I'll live with you."

I pursed my lips thinking. "But then you'll leave your family! What about Carlisle? Esme? Alice?"

"Shh. It'll be alright, yes they're my family and I love them, but I'm just a brother, besides I'll visit them as often as I can." He can and sat down next to me. "Stop worrying, there are more pressing issues at the moment."

I grimaced, because at that exact moment my phone decided to ring.

"Aren't you going to get that?" Edward asked after about twenty seconds of me ignoring it.

"I suppose," I mumbled pulling it out of my jacket.

"Hello?"

"Bella! What are you doing?"

"Aro, you've just seen me for a month." I sighed leaning back into Edward while he traced circles onto my palm.

"We've found him."

"What?" I jumped up. "When?"

"This morning, we need you, Alec, Jane, Annabelle, Chelsea, Quentin, and Madeline are going to meet you at Seattle airport then you are going to the Amazon. Demetri and Felix are already there with Zafrina and her sisters. If you could can you rope Benjamin in, we could use his help."

"I'll try but I'm not promising anything."

"Thank you Bella, The plane will be landing in Seattle in Two hours."

"Okay." I hung up and looked at Edward. "I've got to go."

"I heard." He said passively.

"Edw-"

"No. Go. I'll tell everyone." He sighed and stood up, turning away. I went over to him and grabbed his hand.

"I'm sorry, I have to go, it's been someone we've been searching for, for two decades."

"He sounds dangerous."

"I'm not going to lie, he is, but his children are more of the problem." I turned to stand in front of him.

"Children?" He looked down to see my eyes.

"Long story short, he mates with humans and he gets half-breed children."

"Oh my god." He looked shocked.

"His numbers of births are rising though, he has so many it makes it difficult to keep track of, they have many powers, but there are about a third who doesn't have gifts, but they are all venomous. Not usual venom, it's like a poison to humans and vampires. Vampires can't be killed by it but they have extreme hallucinations."

"I don't want you to go." He pulled me in for a hug.

"I'll have my shield up the whole time, and if I get bitten as long as I get to Volterra I'll be fine, we have an antidote. But that won't happen." I went on my toes and kissed him on the lips, but pulled away quickly. "You know I'm not telling you this just so you can worry, I'm telling you because I want you to know the truth, but you can't tell my family."

He nodded and pulled me closer for another kiss.


	26. Dinner and a future Brother

**Remember any thoughts on how you imagine Robert, also I did a bit of planning and if I follow my plan there's about 8 chapters left, but that'll probably increase knowing me.**

**Cam you let me know if you would like to see a chapter of bella hunting Joham or want it in the outtakes?**

**Also if you read 'The Violet Eyes', once I have finished this story that will be my priority and after more research I have decided I'm rewriting it, I have much more developed ideas now and want to make it better. After that it'll be 'With wolfs claw', but that probably wont be for a year or so, so add to the alerts and please be patient.**

* * *

**RobPOV**

"Are you sure about this?" She asked me for the sixtieth time.

"Yes, it'll be fine." I smiled at her, putting as much love as I could into that smile.

I certainly hoped it would be fine, meeting her twin vampire brother is quite a big thing. He could break my neck and be done with it, but when I have seen him in school they all seem nice, but distant.

"Where are we meeting him?"

"At Bella's old house." She replied with her head in my lap, we were on the sofa as Charlotte and my Mom are out.

"Where's that?" I asked confused.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you about the old Police Chief who went missing?"

I thought about it for a minute. "Chief Swan? I did a project about him, and his daughter... oh. _Really_?"

"Yep, he father is a vampire too, although we didn't know this until a few months ago."

"So that's why you call her Marie at school? I'm guessing that's why you came here in the first place."

"It is." She smiled up at me, and pecked me on the lips, quick enough that I felt the desire running through me, but quick enough that I couldn't act on it. I groaned as she grinned.

"I love how I make your heart go nuts."

"I know you do." I mumbled, trying to get my heart back under control and pretending to be annoyed at her. But she just chuckled her bell like laugh.

"Come on Rob, you know I'm teasing." She grabbed my hand and started playing with my fingers.

"Exactly."

Before I could blink she was knelt next to me at eyelevel. "Robbie," she began with worry colouring her voice. I felt guilty now and she probably knew it.

"Jo, don't be stupid. There's a question is it possible to have a stupid vamp?"

"I'm sure it will be if you ever become one." She laughed and then stopped and pressed her lips together.

"How _do _you become one?" I had never asked her this before, if I'm honest it didn't cross my mind.

"We aren't talking about this now." She moved to get off the sofa, but I grabbed her arm .

"Why not?"

"We've only known each other for two months!" She said exasperated.

"So you don't love me then?"

"What? No. Of course I do!" She looked shocked.

"So what is the problem then? Does it matter how long we've known each other? I'm not saying I want to become a vampire tomorrow. That's just ridiculous."

"Really? You wouldn't?"

"I couldn't do that to my family, because by judging the way you look, you tend to be quite different, so it's not going to be that I can hide it. But I will want to one day, I already feel like I'm going to be with you for a long _long_ time." I reached towards her for a kiss and this time she complied.

But only after a few seconds her phone bleeped. She pulled away, breathing heavily and grinning, I could feel the breathless smile on my face too.

"Uh-oh." She said looking at her phone.

"What's wrong."

"Bella's gone. I was hoping she could be with Jack, just in case." She bit her lip and looked upset.

"Come here." I opened my arms and she fit into them with her head on my shoulder as if I was made for her. "He's your brother right?" She nodded. "And you have known him for how many years?"

"40," she mumbled, I rubbed her cold arm comfortingly.

"So you know him so well, how do you _really _think he'll react?"

She was quiet and still for a few minutes, but I was used to her vampire stillness and knew she was just deep in thought.

"He'll be upset, then angry but I think he'll be happy for me."

"So why are you worrying?" I asked softly.

"What if he doesn't?" She sniffed into my neck.

"Well we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. If we do."

She sighed and nodded, and we sat like that for a few hours until my Mom came home from work.

"Honey, is Joanne staying for dinner?" She asked as I helped her unpack the groceries.

"No we're going out for tea. Port Angeles." I lied smoothly; it was easier than Joanne having to hide her food.

"That's nice dear." She smiled at me. "It's good, you're going out. Especially since..."

I ground my teeth; sure, my family didn't believe I was crazy anymore, but that doesn't stop them forgetting what happened. It was better as I knew what had happened and I had a reason to keep quiet.

"Sure Mom. We're going soon."

"Well change if you're going out for dinner." She said appearing not to notice my annoyance.

I found Joanne coming back in through the front door. I looked at her puzzled, but she lifted a black dress bag.

"Alice warned me." She grinned and went up the stairs. "I'll change in the bathroom." The door closed and I sighed and trudged up the stairs.

"Wear a suit! And hurry up the table is booked for eight." She called through the door as I passed.

"Monkey suit you mean. " I mumbled, but smiled when I heard her laugh.

I dressed quickly in my suit, but with no tie, and was taming my dark hair when she knocked on the door.

I pulled it open and I was sure my jaw dropped to the floor. She was wearing a tight black dress with went to her mid-thigh, she Had on glittery black heels which made her about my height, her dark hair was curled loosely around her shoulders and she was wearing a dark lipstick. It's safe to say my breath was stuck in my throat.

"I can hear your heart again." She smiled. "Thank you. Now we have to go."

She dragged me out the house with a goodbye to my Mom, who warmly returned it and soon we were off in her car.

"Remember to do up your seatbelt, Hun." She said as she pulled onto the main road.

"Tell me about your human life. Please?" I asked her after I obediently clicked my seatbelt into place. She never said much other than she was born in England and her twin brother is Jack.

"Well what do you want to know?"

"I want to know everything, but let's settle for what you want to tell me for now." I settled into my seat with my back against the passenger door so I could see her properly.

"Well, I was born on the 14th of April 2036, forty years ago at 7:20 in the evening and my brother Jack was born four minutes after that. My parents names were Jack and Emma Maxwell. My full name is Joanne Louise Maxwell Swan. I was born in Kent, England. I was a good student and never got into trouble, believe it or not." Then she paused.

"What?"

"I can't remember anything else. If I'm honest I could only remember my full name, the rest of it is stuff I remembered in my vampire life."

"You can't remember anything?" I asked feeling shocked. If I turned into a vampire would I forget my family? My friends? Basically what made me who I am?

"How can I describe it... have you ever spun really fast on a roundabout, you know the spinney ones you find in parks? Well what you see when that happened doubled with what you see underwater, that's what my human life is like, I can't make anything out."

"I assumed you'd just remember everything."

"Not everything but the bits you focus on. For example Rosalie Cullen, her story isn't a nice one to tell, but that was all she focussed on for the beginning of her vampire life and now that's all she can remember. She hates it. Whereas Bella, remembers her mother, father and her time with Edward, and every now and then gets flashes of her human life."

"I didn't realise they were together when she was human. Was he human too? " I asked suddenly curious, if he was a vampire too, what had happened?

"He was a vampire and she was human. He was too protective and hurt her badly, not physically, so she could 'move on and live a human life', the idiot." She almost spat the last part and then sighed. "That's why she's so keen to help us; she doesn't want what happened to her to happen to you."

Just then we pulled into the car park of the restaurant.

"Five minutes to spare." She grinned as she jumped out the car. I stumbled after her.

When we stopped at the menu on the outside I gulped.

"Oh don't worry about that, Bella's paying." She winked pulling out a gold card and linking her arm through mine and proceeded to tow me inside.

The maître-de immediately turned his attention to Joanne, more specifically her cleavage. I wanted to dive over that podium and punch him. Thankfully, almost in response to this, she pulled her coat around her and leant into my arm, turning her face towards me.

I looked at the man and couldn't help a huge smirk in his direction.

"Now that you're looking away from my girlfriend's chest, would you mind showing us to our table?"

His cheeks flamed and looked ruffled he took the name and showed us hastily to our table muttering apologies to us and purposely not looking at Joanne which I was appreciative for. He fluttered away, his cheeks still flaming.

"Nice job there." She laughed and winked at me.

"You were the one who kept my temper in check." I quickly looked down at the menu. "No offence, but why are we here? You can't even eat here."

"You've had what, fourteen girlfriends?" My cheeks grew warm but I nodded.

"About that number. Why?"

"Did you ever go to a fancy restaurant with them?" I shook my head. "So this is something different, and relatively human." She gave a small smile and looked down and the menu.

"So this is it, human things to do? You know I don't care about stuff that. You are not human and I don't care that you aren't. So why should you do things you stopped over twenty years ago?"

"I don't want you to miss out," she shrugged looking sullenly down at her menu, grimacing every now and then. I sighed and reached across to grab her cold hand.

"Thank you, I appreciate it." I squeezed its hardness once and withdrew my hand.

Just then our waiter waltzed up to us, one look at her and I groaned under my breath.

"Can I take your order?" She said keeping her eyes fixed on me; her eyes kept flitting from my face to my partly unbuttoned white shirt, with her teeth playing with her bottom lip flirtingly.

"Excuse me? I think they got your name tag wrong. You need to tell your manager." I looked over at Joanne. She was shaking her head sadly, but I knew the glint of anger in her eyes. The girl looked over to her with a glare.

"Sorry? My name tag isn't wrong."

"Well it doesn't include the words whore and dumb, so it must be." This was so unexpected I burst out into laughter, causing our waiter to puff up and storm off. Her reaction caused other couples in the vicinity to stifle their giggles and sniggers too.

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" I chuckled with one hand on my stomach, trying to restrain my laughter.

"No but I still appreciate it all the same." She gave me a large grin as our new waiter walked up to us, and thankfully she didn't try to flirt with either of us.

**sHsHs**

"Calm down." I gave her a kiss on her forehead breathing in her comforting aroma of oranges and thyme.

She glanced at her slim gold watch on her left wrist and jump3ed up and began pacing, I sighed. There wasn't a way to stop her worrying, just wait and see what happened.

About that point the light in the dusty living room flickered and when it came back on a huge figure was by the fireplace. I swore and Joanne jumped.

"Jack!"

I stood up glad that I was taller than this vampire, but I could still feel my heart race at the fact I was facing Joanne's brother and a vampire.

"Joanne, what's going on?" He said grabbing hold of her arm, his face looking worried and confused, then he looked at me properly. "You're that kid from Halloween."

"Robert." I nodded my head in acknowledgement and offered my hand, which he simply looked at warily. I shrugged and withdrew it, putting both arms behind my back and standing with my legs a shoulders width apart, withdrawing on my three summers of military school, so I looked stronger than a usual human, when I was really terrified.

"Does he know?" He looked at his sister, his eyes wide; he shook her when she didn't reply. "Joanne!"

"Yes! But you will _not _hurt him." She said sternly.

"B-b-but. What?" He spluttered looking from his sister and back to me, again and again.

She gently moved out of his hold and put a hand on my arm.

"He's my mate."

It was silent for five seconds with neither of them moving or breathing. Then Jack leaned back against the wall.

"Your _mate_? Don't joke with me Joanne. Please." He clasped his hands in front of him, but I was confused. Why was he so desperate?

"I would never joke about this with you!" she said exasperatedly.

"But you'll be killed!" He cried his eyes becoming shiny.

"What?" I asked getting worried. I looked and Joanne. "Jo. What does he mean?"

"Against the rules." She murmured looking at the floor.

"And now they'll kill the both of you!" Jack's voice broke at kill but then as if a switch was flicked he turned to me. "It's your fault!" He stormed towards me but before I could make sense of anything I was in the hall and Jack was back against the wall his sister holding his wrists.

"It's not his fault. If anyone's it's mine, now calm down Jack."

He looked at her for a minute then relaxed.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I didn't know what I was doing, I was trying to keep Rob safe, and the rest of you. I only told Bella that day we disappeared during the prank in the meadow. Well Adam followed and found out too, but I only wanted to tell Bella as she had been in Rob's position once."

He breathed out deeply and pulled her in for a hug.

"You silly girl. Sure there would be uproar but we'd be there for you. Family sticks together."

I suddenly felt like I was intruding on an important moment and coughed quietly. "I'll wait outside." I turned to leave but Jack chuckled.

"No need mate. Stay." He pulled away from his sister, who was beaming in happiness and relief, and moved towards me with a sheepish grin on his face. "Start over?"

I laughed and nodded.

"Hello my name's Robert andI'm dating your vampire twin sister." I stuck out my hand and this time he took it.

"Hi, I'm Jack and it's nice to meet you."

We both grinned at each other and Joanne came over and fit herself under my arm.

"It's good to see you boys play nice, but Jack I'm not telling the others yet."

"If you think that's best." He shrugged. "Well I'm off. I'm scheduled a fight with Emmett, I might let him win to make him feel better though." He gave Jo a kiss on the cheek and nodded a bye to me and left.

"I said it wouldn't be too bad." She chuckled.

"Liar." I retorted.


	27. Build up

**Sorry for the wait, I'm not going to pounder you with excuses but just post this chapter today, and the next tomorrow, it's slowly starting to finish off, but it's just taking longer than I thought. also i didn't realise i hadn't updated in over a month and a half.**

**Thanks to:**

**2d EVIL iN dISGUISE2 | AnimatedDanger | tdavi8 | PurplePandasLoVe | InuFan21497 | Demicole | BellaSwan97 | KimberlyAnnPossible14 | FiveStarReader | KanameTwilight | lionnara**

**Great to see more new names**

* * *

**AdamPOV**

"Are you sure you are okay?" Edward asked.

"_I am, although everyone was hurt. But we didn't get what we were sent for." _A sigh escaped the little phone in Edward's hand. _"I'll be back before midday the day after tomorrow." _Then she hung up.

"What was that about?" Sam asked his voice slightly suspicious.

"Yeah. Eddie. You know where and why Bella went don't you?" Joanne asked quirking an eyebrow from where she leant against the wall.

We were gathered in our house tonight as a wall was knocked out and Esme told us to leave. I think she had enough of repairing the house.

"I told you, she was on a job for the Volturi. If you want to know ask her yourself." He shrugged.

_I know where she went you know. _I thought. He whipped his head towards me and I grinned and looked away. Just then Alice skipped into the room.

"Adam!"

I jumped. No laughing, Alice can be seriously scary when she looks angry, which is how she looked right then.

"What did I do?"

"What you _will _do." She growled putting her hands on her hips and looking like thunder.

"Oh. So you mean stop doing what I don't even know I'm going to do. So obvious." I muttered.

"Don't play smart. You are going to use your little touchy thing to see what your future wife is going to look like in her dress."

I couldn't help it when I burst out into laughter.

"Look Alice," I lifted my gloved hands. "Firmly on, like I want to know the details about your sex life, I can't pick what I see." I grimaced.

"Just don't do it or, sorry Valerie, there will be no groom." She growled again and stalked off.

"Didn't think that through did you? No groom equals no wedding!" I called after her chuckling.

"She will actually kill you, or at least chain you up until Valerie comes down the aisle." Emmett grinned.

"Believe me, I know." I smiled, and suddenly felt the telltale ache in the back of my skull. "I need to feed." I winced rubbing the back of my head.

"Okay love, I'll take you." Valerie smiled and helped me out.

Once I had fed from a few elk, I relaxed high up in a fur tree with Valerie in my lap.

"I don't think you should suppress it you know."

"What do you mean?" I looked down at her.

"Well Sam mentioned that he had studied mentally ill case notes in the past and those patients which suppressed their 'ill'side were far worse off in the long run." She took of one of my gloves and let me see the memory.

"I'm not going to let it loose, when I can't even remember what happens." I shook my head firmly, and Valerie sighed.

She turned so she could face me on the branch.

"I've only seen it once and it's happened what, four times in all? I'll admit it's scary. Do you really want to see what it's like? Because I'll show you if that's what you _really _want."

When I didn't answer she went to grab my hand but I pulled away.

"No. Not yet anyway."

Now that I had thought about it, I didn't want to know. When they say ignorance is bliss I agree. It would scare me and I could imagine myself going permanently crazy with the knowledge.

I rubbed my shoulder where the ropy, hot scar lay.

"Just think we'll be married for the New Year." She said looking genuinely excited.

"Two weeks. It's quite surreal." I grinned back and tucked a loose red curl behind her ear.

"Indeed it is. But we need to be in school in half an hour." She chuckled and slid silently the forty feet to the ground. I followed suit mumbling.

**KaiyaPOV**

"Late again Kaiya." Mr Holm tutted.

"Sorry sir." I went to my seat next to Alice. "How do you get here so quickly?" I muttered tying my black hair back into a bun so it didn't dip in my paint.

"I just don't get carried away with my husband." She winked as my cheeks went very warm.

We carried on with our Art work. Alice was painting a place she visited about thirty years ago, from memory. She was far from finished but it looked like a picture. I decided to paint the pond in our garden, but adding flowers and different trees, taking snippets from my human memories. It looked ethereal but I liked it.

"So where is Marie today?" Sir asked from behind my left shoulder.

"Work. She'll be back for Monday." I threw a smile over my shoulder.

He nodded and took off his square glasses showing his sea green eyes. I didn't realise how young he looked till then. He could have been twenty yet he said he was in his thirties. At that moment a ring glinted on his left ring finger. It had the infinity figure and some intricate pattern engraved in it which seemed to move and shimmer as you looked at it.

"She better be. She's already lost six weeks of school and it's not yet Christmas."

"She'll catch up easily. I didn't know you were married."

"We all have our secrets," he shrugged and walked away. I thought about how mesmerising that pattern was all day.

**sHsHs**

Bella was true to her word and was back before dawn on Sunday, although she looked exhausted. The Cullen's weren't at the house yet and Bella seemed relieved.

"Well I don't want Edward fussing before I'm through the door." She rolled her eyes and dumped her bag on her bed.

"What happened?" Sam said looking concerned, my husband always was intuitive.

"It just went wrong. Almost as if they knew we were coming. Also we may have visitors after Christmas."

"Who?" Adam asked, sat on the sofa with Valerie on his lap looking content.

"Zafrina and Senna. Kachiri was killed in the fight." She sat heavily on the bed with her head in her hands, her dark hair covering her.

I walked over and sat next to her, rubbing her back.

"They surprised me too much, my shield wasn't tight enough and they all seemed to bear down on me so I lost it. Before I knew it half of them were on the floor screaming, and they were going after the rest. Kachiri managed to kill three of the older ones which caused them all to go crazy and rip her to shreds." A sob escaped her throat and I pulled her closer. "I got angry then. I killed about six of them but they had poisoned the rest and managed to bite me, but they ran off shortly after. I got a call to Aro and then in twenty-four hours we were back in Volterra. Aro was distraught, Caius was really angry, and Marcus was shocked. We hadn't realised how many there were. When we were ambushed we figured out there were about thirty, but about twenty more turned up after and it's very unlikely that was them all.  
Jane was hurt the worst, she's still getting treated, I only had a drop so I was healed in an hour and the others were quite bad but better when I left."

"It's not your fault." I told her, the rest of my family murmuring agreements.

She sighed again.

"It wouldn't have happened if my shield was up, and I might have forgiven myself if we caught him. But we failed." She shook her head and gripped my hand over her shoulder.

We all looked at each other knowing reasoning with her would be futile.

"So is Annabelle coming back?" Valerie asked politely but earned a poke from Adam.

Bella looked up and pulled a face. "Yes, but not for a few days; Aro dismissed me early as I wanted to go back home and I wasn't badly hurt." She shrugged and with a squeeze she stood up. "I'm going to grab a shower then have a movie marathon. Mindless films are what I need right now." With a small smile she retreated to her bathroom with a slam of the door.

We all slowly returned downstairs. Adam pulled out his phone and told Lorrie what had happened.

"_We'll come back tomorrow if we can. She doesn't sound too great."_

"If you want, I think she would appreciate it, but she's different these days." Adam muttered.

"_All the more reason to come back. I'll book a flight now and text you the details. Bye all."_

We all chorused a 'bye' and the call disconnected. After we settled in the basement downstairs, I sat next to my husband.

"It'll be nice to have our little brother back." I grinned, remembering him first seeing us all after he had changed. He was terrified and reminded me of my little brother when I was human.

"It'll be nice, a full house for Christmas." He smiled and kissed me on the head, his dark hair flopping into his eyes in the process.

I snuggled into him breathing deeply and closing my eyes, just relaxing. Just when I was at the point of highest relaxation, Sam's phone started buzzing making me jump and squeak slightly.

He grinned at me and swiftly pulled out his phone. He saw the caller ID and opened it.

"Yes she is here. But don't come for half an hour or so, she wants to relax."

"_I won't bother her."_

"_Will,"_ Alice chirped from the background. _"Don't worry Sam, we'll keep him here for half an hour, or just send me a text before then."_

"Thanks Alice. Bye."

Then the doorbell rang. Adam sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"Wow, he must be getting faster."

Jack jumped up and volunteered to get door.

We heard mumbles from upstairs, then footsteps coming back down. Jack poked his head around the thick door.

"Sam, can you come up?"

He nodded and with a kiss on my cheek, followed Jack back up.

There was more incomprehensible mumbling thanks to soundproofing, and then another voice joined in, the voices picked up pace, then the door closed.

Three sets of footsteps returned and then Jack, Sam and Bella came in.

"What was that about?" Adam asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Nothing much." She looked down and rubbed at a dirt mark on one of the sofas.

Sam pursed his lips and sat back down next to me, while Jack's muscled figure flopped down into an armchair with a snort.

"Even without the others reactions, I can tell you're not being straight with me."

"It was Jacob." Jack boomed.

"But it was nothing important." She shot him a look.

"Victoria killing again isn't important?" Jack sat up straight a dark angry glint in his eyes. "What's gotten into you?" He stood up and I could feel Sam stiffen, I grabbed his thigh.

Bella straightened up but didn't look as impressive as usual.

"What do you mean Jack?" She asked tiredly.

"In the matter of a few months, you've gone from hating her guts and trying to do anything to get to her, even including her sister," Valerie perked up, surprised, but said nothing. "Then she created an army of vampires to kill you, and then you come back from the Volturi and haven't said a bad thing against her! What changed?"

"You have to bring the Volturi into it don't you? You just are annoyed I never told you, but it's my life, not your business!" She said, looking slightly hurt but defiant.

"Of course I am! The past few months have just been full of lies and liars! Even my own sister!" He growled and punched the wall.

"Jack!" She thundered as Adam jumped up.

"We used to tell each other everything, do everything together, but she told everyone else before me. She couldn't care less!"

"That is uncalled for!" Adam shouted back.

"I forgot you knew too!"

Sam jumped up when all three of them were screaming at each other.

"Enough. What happened to all of us? We used to only have fun and enjoy being a family. Now we have turned into a huge mess." He looked around disapprovingly. "Jack, yes people have lied, but it has always been for a good reason, so calm down. Adam, we all know it's been difficult for you, but you need to take it easy remember." Adam mumbled and sat down where Valerie smoothed his blonde hair. "Now if there is one thing I have learnt in this life, it's to trust Bella. Sure her decisions haven't appeared the best but she's done them for us. Now everyone calm down and everything that has been said will disappear for the time being."

"I'm sorry Jack."

Everyone's head shot towards the doorway, where Joanne was lurking. I never knew when she had come back, but it appeared she heard enough of it.

"Jo." He jumped up and looked ashamed but she had run off, so he followed her shouting after her.

"It's a good job the Cullen's weren't here to witness that." I laughed trying to ease the tension, it didn't work very well.

"It had to happen at some point." Bella slumped in a chair. "It's been waiting to happen since the beginning." She blew some stray hair out of her eyes.

"We know those two will make it up." Valerie said.

"Exactly, and Jack isn't one for an outburst often, so he should feel better." I added. "Now what's the theme for the marathon again?" I grinned and leapt over to the boxes of DVD's."

"Horror." Valerie said eagerly.

"Comedy obviously." Adam grinned.

"Why not romance?" Sam.

"Maybe we'll wait till the others get here." I sighed.

* * *

**If you happen to review before I post the Christmas Ball chapter tomorrow, you can get a preview. Otherwise please review!**


	28. Christmas Ball

**Almost 4,000 words :)**

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**BPOV**

Christmas. The time of year where everyone puts on their smiles, pulls out their decorations, and for one day are hopefully selfless.

And today was Christmas Eve. Really, Christmas Eve is the best day in the festive season, as it's the climax of the whole thing. And at this moment I was returning to my house where fuming Alice was stood.

I gave Edward a quick kiss and he ran off towards his own home.

"Bella! You were meant to be back an hour ago!"

"Calm down Alice, we have three hours yet." I rolled my eyes as I slid past her through the doorway.

"You're filthy! What were you doing?" She smacked a hand to her forehead in frustration.

"Well-" I began, grinning.

"It was rhetorical! Now get a shower in Kaiya's room." She commanded.

I huffed and walked upstairs, wanting to argue with Alice but knowing better.

Kaiya was walking out of her room when I got there, her usual dark mane straight and down to her waist.

"Alice has been going berserk." She laughed. "Well we're all in your room doing make-up and hair, as it _is_ the biggest. Oh and Annabelle got back when you were out."

She gave a little wave and floated off humming.

I had a quick shower and wrapped in a towel, ventured up stairs.

I opened the door and quickly saw every woman was there. So all the guys were at the Cullen's, and they were going to pick us up on the way.

Alice was marching round with her hair pinned back into a bun, telling people which shade of eye-shadow, how to give that perfect flick of eyeliner, etc. Joanne was sat on my bed looking grumpy, saying she's all for wearing a dress but she isn't going to be a Barbie doll. Rosalie and Kaiya were doing hair, and Valerie and Esme were doing make-up.

I sat next to Joanne on the bed.

"Don't argue with Alice, she'll get her own way, even if she has to drug you."

"Like that would happen." She muttered crossing her arms.

"Just remember, Alice is a force of nature, and can nature be stopped? I'll do your make-up for you if you want, it'll please everyone."

She sighed and stood up. "Fine, but if it's too much I'm taking it off."

I smirked. She reminded me of all the things I came up with when Alice kidnapped me for her 'beauty sessions'.

We all decided to go at human speed, so we were all finished in two hours. Before I was going to get in my dress, I was one of the last as I was trying to control Alice, which wasn't very successful, but it relaxed her more, Annabelle looked pointedly at me and went out onto the balcony.

I followed her and pulled the door closed behind me.

"How is everyone?" I asked quietly, sitting down on the wicker seat. My attitude to her had changed since the fight, she was one of the last ones who were standing and she tried her damnest to help Kachiri. But there was still that nagging in my gut telling me to stay away.

"Better." She shrugged looking out over at the snowy landscape.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Do you still refuse to help me?" She looked sideways at me, and I looked down guiltily.

"Yes."

She slammed her hand down, smashing the glass and bending the metal. Out of the corner of my eye I saw everyone begin to come out, but I held a hand up towards them and after a hesitation, they went back in and added the finishing touches to their looks.

"You _know _why. Back when I agreed I wasn't in my right mind, neither were you. I even thought you had changed your mind."

"Why should I? They killed him, but I can't find out their leader without you!"

"Then you'll have to do it yourself. I'm not saying what they do is right. But we don't do the right thing either."

"They killed him when he was a newborn! He hadn't even made the choice yet."

"Stop. I will not help and that's that. And if I hear you talking about it again, I will stop you. It's not your decision whether to kill some many for doing what they honestly believe is right."

She glared at me which actually made my stomach roll.

"You'll regret that you sided with them over your own race."

"_My_ race is vampire, I'm not denying it. I'm not trying to get revenge anymore, it's too tiring."

"Too tiring? It wasn't tiring before. You were the most lethal vampire when I met you- an assassin with a conscience. You were happy to kill if it was for a valid reason. This _is_. What changed your mind to hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you, there is something else going on with you. I think I know what, but if it's true then I'll have to kill you which I don't want to have to do. If I'm right it'll explain a lot."

"I don't know what you are talking about. I'll see you at the dinner." Her eyes glinted at the final word; she then leaped over the side and disappeared into the darkness.

I sat there for a few minutes afterwards, gnawing my lip. Knowing she was right on some accounts, but I couldn't trust that girl.

When I re-entered I quickly changed into my blue dress, avoiding everyone's curious eyes.

The men were due to pick us up from half seven, so we all ventured down to the hall five minutes beforehand.

Everyone looked really good. Esme was dresses in a floaty green dress with gold detail around the bust. Kaiya was wearing a vintage Valentine down which was pale and draped across her figure perfectly. Rosalie was wearing a red (surprise surprise) dress which clung to the waist then had a very slight princess look towards the floor. Valerie was dressed in a beautiful floor length gauzy gold dress with sequins decorating it. Joanne and Alice were the only two wearing short dresses. Joanne had a short simple black cocktail dress with sequins, and Alice was wearing a simple asymmetric fuchsia silk dress which accentuated her tiny figure. Lastly Martiee was wearing a gold shimmery dress which fell simply to the floor but had an amazing intricate pattern covering it.

First came Sam who was driving his vintage Mercedes. They exchanged a passionate kiss which we all cheered at causing them to dash off embarrassingly.

After that came Emmett in Rosalie's newest convertible, and Jasper in Alice's black Porsche. Carlisle came in his old Mercedes which Rosalie and I had recently touched up.

Adam came in my Audi, which I grudgingly let him borrow after much pleading. Jack came to pick Joanne up in his cherry Mustang, so they could do something beforehand, probably another evil prank of theirs. Lastly Lorrie came in his new Eagle, which he finally got around to buying after his last one took a trip off the cliff thanks to Adam.

About five minutes after Lorrie and Martiee left, Edward arrived.

"Keep me waiting huh?" I asked raising an eyebrow as he stepped out the car. But then my first thought was y-u-m.

"You look good in a tux." I tried to stop myself drooling and pouncing on him, it was hard but I restrained myself.

"You look beautiful Bella." He grinned. Then all I saw were his smouldering gold eyes and all I felt was his lips on mine.

Thankfully I pulled away after a minute, leaving Edward with a huge pout.

"Now look who's being responsible," I laughed, grabbed his hand, and towed him to his Vanquish.

We arrived at the Arctic Club hotel in just over half an hour. It was a hotel in the middle of Seattle. It wasn't impressive from the outside but I had been inside and knew it was amazing.

As Edward pulled up someone helped me out of the car and a valet took the car. We were lead inside and escorted to the Northern lights dome room. It was, you guessed it, circular with a domed ceiling, but it also had golden furnishings. There were large tables with orange centrepieces and crystal glasses.

There were people everywhere. All in designer clothing, grabbing a glass of champagne here and there, but everyone's attention was on the vampires waltzing on the dance floor.

I couldn't hold back a giggle. They were all perfectly in time; it was possible they were hired professionals. Everyone was dancing wither their partners, and Annabelle was dancing with Jack. Joanne wasn't anywhere to be seen but before I had fully registered this I was with Edward blending into the waltz with them.

We enjoyed a couple more dances before I hinted for some of us to leave so others could dance too.

As we left all smiling kindly at those who look like they literally had faeces shoved up their perfect noses, Joanne walked in, accompanied with Rob.

"Crap." I whined.

* * *

**EPOV**

"What?" Lawrence looked shocked, his thoughts unusually unclear.

"Wow." Emmett laughed awkwardly with his eyebrows raised.

"Not again." Rosalie moaned.

Most comments were along those lines, but Adam, Jack and Bella who were looking at each other in an odd way.

"How about we go on the balcony?" Bella suggested. Carlisle started to call us back to give them some privacy.

"No Carlisle, you're all like family now anyway." Adam smiled and led everyone onto the balcony.

I looked around for Bella and a little way away saw that her and Anna were hissing to each other incoherently.

"Bella?" I asked, she looked up and smiled which made me kick myself again for being such an idiot in hurting her like that all those years ago. But as Jasper says, what's done is done and at least she is smiling again.

"Coming now Hun." She left Anna and walked over to me, leading me outside.

It was deserted outside and too loud from inside for anyone to hear what we were talking about in the first place.

Adam, Jack, Joanne and the human boy, Rob, were stood in a group facing the rest. Sam, Kaiya, Carlisle and Esme were drifting in the middle looking interested and happy. The rest were stood opposite the group, Bella's family were the ones who looked most shocked and slightly betrayed. The rest of my family were slightly amused as they never thought it'd be Joanne who would mate with a human, so they were all fairly shocked too.

Bella gave me a kiss on the cheek and went over to stand next to her vampire children. I went and stood in the middle, opposite my parents and Sam and Kaiya, fully prepared to stand up for Joanne but also wanting to know the story.

"This is Robert, Joanne's mate." Bella announced looking around intently; she quickly looked around at the human and gave him a warm smile which calmed him down slightly.

"How long have you known, Bella?" Lorrie asked.

"About a month, as has Adam because he's too nosey for his own good. And Jack found out a week ago. She told me because of my past." Her golden eyes flicked to me, and a small amount of guilt wormed its way through my gut, but I squashed it, this is about Joanne not me.

"Okay, I understand that, but why are you letting this happen?"

"Excuse me?" Joanne burst out, her thoughts a whirlwind of anger towards her adopted brother.

"Joanne." Adam warned.

But it was Robert who calmed her down. He grabbed her hand and stood in front of her, he shook his head minutely, and she quickly calmed down her thoughts turning into a flood of her care towards him.

"Lorrie, what do you mean let this happen?" Bella put her hands on her hips, perfectly straight and her eyes slightly annoyed but understanding.

"What happened to you ended so well didn't it? And now it's your duty to either turn him or kill him, but you have to pass it through your employers first. He's what, sixteen?"

"Exactly because of what happened to me. Rob is in love with her as she is with him, if I told her to leave he'll be in as much pain as I was, I will not subject him to that."

I tuned into Jasper's thoughts who confirmed they did indeed care for each other very much.

"But what about the Volturi?" Rosalie asked. _She doesn't care about them that much does she?_

I turned towards her and glared.

"Not fair Rosalie." She just ignored me.

"Well it was meant to be kept quiet until someone we know had left." She looked pointedly at the vampire who had just slipped through the door.

Annabelle laughed once humourlessly and leant against the wall looking smug.

"You planned on lying to us, didn't you? Our master's too. Wow you are worse than I originally thought." She looked Bella up and down disgustedly. I tried to tune into her thoughts, but got very little, which was unusual for her.

Bella sighed but still kept her posture.

"Yes I was, to protect my family. How else could it have worked? Aro may have agreed, maybe Marcus but Caius wouldn't be pleased in the slightest."

"You never tried though, no manners. You never keep your promises."

By now everyone had realised that this was no longer on the topic of the Volturi and everybody's heads were moving back and forth between the two of them like it was a high speed tennis match.

"Maybe we should get back to the topic at hand?" I suggested.

"Good idea." Jack nodded.

As Rob opened his mouth a well dressed woman walked through the doors.

"Is there a Miss Marie Littlewood here?"

Bella looked confused and glided over to the woman.

"Yes, what's the problem?" The black sequined detail glittered merrily in the lights from inside.

"There is a woman at the front asking to see you." I tuned into her thoughts but came up with nothing as she had been informed through her ear piece.

"Who is it?"

"She says her name is Trix Rouge?"

Bella looked confused but agreed to follow her to the front. I caught her attention before she left.

"Want me to come?"

She smiled and held her arm out towards me. I linked mine through it and we left the group who was looking after confused.

As we reached the desk I caught the thoughts of the receptionist who was mind molesting the vampire.

I froze and brought Bella to a stop. She looked at me questioningly and tried to pull me along.

"It's Victoria," I hissed. Her eyes widened and before I could blink she had slipped away and was at the front desk.

I ran after her confused and worried. She wouldn't kill Victoria in front of all these people would she?

As I appeared at Bella's side, I paused and looked at the red-head properly.

She was wearing a long coral coloured dress, her fiery hair was swept up into a sleek side bun, but her eyes were _gold_.

"What are you doing here?"

"I heard Alice mention a ball on Christmas Eve, and thought I could find you here." Victoria said looked down almost... shyly?

"But _why_?" Bella asked softly.

"I-I-I was wondering if I could see what a family was like... and I want to see my sister again."

I had been tuning into Victoria's thoughts during this and saw how sincere she was, I was completely gobsmacked.

Bella sighed but saw her smile.

"You've tried this hard, so yes. But I don't know what my family is going to say." She gave Victoria's hand a quick awkward squeeze, but Victoria looked ecstatic.

"Thank you!" She hugged her, and Bella's eyes bulged but she laughed slightly.

"O-okaaay." I looked over a the woman who escorted us here and gave her some money as a donation enabling Victoria to be allowed through.

"Thrown from the ball pit into the lion pit." I muttered shaking my head at the absurdness of the situation, following the two women back towards the room.

Bella looked over her shoulder and smiled at me, grabbing my hand while Victoria was close on her right side, looking nervous.

"Erm, it's nice to see you take an animal diet." I said, feeling awkward but also needed to tell her that her decision was a good one.

"Well, thanks." She looked away and sped up.

I let out a breath never feeling so nervous.

"Calm down." Bella giggled tiptoeing to kiss me. "I'll be ready if something bad happens."

"I'm sure you will." I kissed the top of her head. "Maybe we should go in first and warn them?"

"Good idea. Trix?" Bella called, she stopped and looked back. "I'm going in to warn them, and Edward will bring you in when it's time."

I looked down at her, horrified.

"Be nice." She winked and sped off.

"Thank you for not killing me on the spot." She looked at me from across the hall.

"Well as Bella said, you obviously have tried hard to change." I shrugged.

"Honestly, thank you. And I'm sorry for being such a bother on your family. I'm sorry for James, he could be very determined." She winced when she mentioned her dead mate.

"I'm sorry for killing him." I wasn't sorry for the loss of his life but I was sorry for taking him away from his mate.

"I would have done the same." She shrugged. "Being on the animal blood is so hard, but I like feeling plus now James is gone, I feel alone and I don't want to spend an eternity like it, plus I don't want to be known as 'that vampire who tried to kill the Cullen's', most of the vampires I have come across know you all and are fairly fond of you. Animal blood is becoming more popular because of it."

"Really? Carlisle will be pleased." I smiled, and quickly tuned into the situation on the balcony.

"We might be waiting awhile. They're a bit..."

"Angry?" She lifted an eyebrow, "If they want a fight my instinct will tell me to run away... no urges yet."

"Fair enough." I nodded. "Valerie is pleased but confused."

"How I miss her! My little sister." Her face lit up, but then she looked guilty. "Was it the right thing to do? Change her?"

"She's getting married in the New Year, so I would say so."

"Really? To that Adam boy? He will be good for her." She beamed and clasped her hands in front of her chest.

"You do care about her..." I said, feeling sceptical as it was something I didn't want to acknowledge.

"Of course I do!" She looked shocked, and then sighed. "I know it'll take a _lot_, but please give me a chance, if I turn bad. The wolves will kill me anyway."

After thinking it through for a minute, I decided there wasn't any actual harm in it, as we would all stop her before it got that far.

"I will give you a chance, I was given one many years ago, and I believe everyone deserves one."

She nodded slightly in thanks and then we resumed into a less awkward silence.

"Trix Rouge?" I mused suddenly remembering the name she gave.

"Well Trix, as I was dressed up as Bellatrix Lestange on Halloween, and Rouge for the hair." She grinned almost sheepishly showing off her impeccable teeth.

"Well I think it's safe... enough." I listened to the thoughts of my family. Carlisle and Esme was pleased she has tried to change. Jasper was tense, Alice was apprehensive as she didn't see her coming. Emmett was quiet and thinking seriously about the situation, Rosalie was fuming but prepared to give her a reluctant chance. Then I listened to Bella's family. Adam was _really_ annoyed, but Valerie was really excited and couldn't wait to see her sister. Kaiya was amused at the situation and quite calm as she had never met Victoria and didn't see it as a stretch to give her a chance. Sam was fairly calm but not very eager to see her. Jack was confused but trying to think of a way to make the situation light hearted. Lawrence was thinking up a battle strategy, whereas his mate was quiet and almost out of the situation. Joanne was ready to flip out and 'kick her ass', and Robert was worried Joanne _was_ going to flip out and 'kick her ass'.

But actually to an outsider the balcony was deathly quiet and Bella was telling me to come through.

"Time to see the real army." I grinned and walked through. Victoria straightened and tried to look more confident whereas her face was radiating nervousness.

As soon as we reached the balcony, Valerie launched right past me and into Victoria's arms, squealing ecstatically.

They buried their faces into each other's shoulders, radiating enough happiness Jasper began to grin.

Unbeknown to the two of them, Joanne was being dragged off by Jack and Rob; thankfully she wasn't fighting due to the frailness of her human boyfriend. Lawrence and Rosalie was also leaving calmer than before but not wanting to discuss this now, Martiee following. Kaiya and Sam walked off to rejoin the party, smiling, Sam was more comfortable now, but wanting to give the two sisters some space to catch-up. Adam was lurking against the wall, not wanting to leave his mate, Bella was stood next to him, whispering things to him trying to brighten his mood, and she caught my eye and smiled. Annabelle was against the opposite wall to Bella, eying Victoria thoughtfully.

After a few minutes they pulled away and grinned at each other, and you could really see they were related, their features were practically the same, although Valerie's eyes were slightly rounder and Victoria was an inch or so taller.

"Victoria, it's been a long time. I'm glad to see you are attempting to drink animal blood." Carlisle beamed, holding his hand out.

Victoria shook it. "Everyone talks of you Carlisle, and your compassion."

He laughed rather embarrassed.

"And Esme, it's lovely to meet you, on nicer terms." She held her hand out but esme gently pulled her in for a hug.

"We happily give you another chance." Esme smiled and let go, returning to her husband's side.

Annabelle's thoughts drifted towards me. _The Volturi doesn't_.

I looked at her, but her face was still thoughtful.

"Victoria, can you do me a big favour, and make clear decisions before you do things...it annoys be being blind." Alice grinned her small smile, and Victoria nodded with an apology.

"Should some of us return home? There's no point stretching Victoria's boundaries now." Adam murmured from his shadow.

Carlisle agreed and said we could all meet at our home for now. Half of us left, as those more annoyed at the situation were going to stay for another hour or so, then meet us there.

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**Sorry it ended a bit rubbishy, but I kept writing and writing and writing and couldn't find an end point.  
****  
This chapter was hinting more, and then next chapter will really begin the end of the story. Yay... almost sad, but I'm excited to restart the others.**

**Links for dresses and venue are on my wall.**


	29. Christmas Surprises

**Sorry, I had a busy and sad Christmas, which I will mention in the next chapter, but thanks for still bearing with the story.**

**Thank you:**

**vamped97 | rara avis91 | siriusblacklover24 | missalishacullen | eblackwell | ajeanphoto | jezzie123 | HisBabyGirl65 | BreeT | FiveStarReader | gothgirl1245 | SYN12 | HARMONIESANGEL | Draco2 | kk55 | MoonfootLover**

* * *

**BPOV**

"It's Christmas!" Alice squealed, running full speed through my front door.

"And it will carry on that way for another," I looked at my watch, "eighteen hours." I looked over the stair rail, bemused by the pixie like girl.

"Christmas only comes around once a year!" She stomped her foot, looking up at me sadly.

"Fine, but no opening presents until _everyone_ is in the living room and you can't force them to hurry up." I rolled my eyes and turned around to re-enter my room.

"Well Alice is here." I sighed and flopped on my bed, Victoria and Valerie on the sofa and Adam lounging by the window. He grinned.

"I gathered by the excited squeal."

"She does tend to be excited doesn't she?" Victoria laughed lightly.

"Understatement." Adam chuckled.

"I'm guessing everyone's calmed down now?" Valerie asked.

"Calm..." I mused looking up at my ceiling bemused.

After we all arrived at our house, but Annabelle who decided to stay at the ball and go visit some other friends for Christmas, the room separated similar to that of the balcony minus Rob as Joanne 'forbade' him from being there, Victoria told her story of how she was changed, Valerie adding bits here and there. Victoria told us of her travels with James, meeting with Laurent and eventually what happened since James was killed.

Some, namely Joanne, Jack, Rosalie, Jasper, Adam, and Lawrence were still sceptical, Adam was won over with his mates reassurance thankfully preventing one of his 'episodes', Lorrie is still wary, and Jack is warming to the idea of a 'clean slate', and the rest are just not ready to accept the fact she's not as bad anymore.

At about this point I suggested Valerie and Victoria stay here to catch up while the rest of us went to the Cullen's. Adam decided to stay to be with Valerie, but the rest came.

Although as we were leaving rob turned up angry at Joanne for treating him like that, when she sighed angrily and they argued a little until they came to a compromise, if he couldn't be there, she couldn't either, so she went home with him.

The rest of us stayed at the Cullen's for a few hours, arguing about what to do. Carlisle said Victoria could stay with them, but Sam agued she'd want to be with her sister. In the end I decided she's stay with our family as it might make it easier to get used to her. After that I went and quickly saw Jacob, and renewed the treaty where Victoria was included as a vampire under my care, so I would be punishable not anyone else.

I went into the woods with Edward for an hour, and when we came back Alice declared that there was 'enough messing around, it's Christmas!' and sped off to my house with bags of presents.

Joanne and Rosalie were still not pleased, although Rob had managed to convince Joanne to let him come for a few hours, how I haven't a clue.

A knock came on the door, and I moaned throwing a pillow over my face. "We're coming Alice." I mumbled through the pillow.

"Hmm, doesn't look like it." I was suddenly and violently attacked at my sides which left me gasping for air on the floor while a mischievous lopsided grin hovered above me.

"That was not nice!" I pouted jabbing him in the side, unfortunately he wasn't ticklish.

"Speak for yourself." Adam was close to wheezing from laughing so much.

I huffed and scrambled out from under Edward. "It may be Christmas but that doesn't mean I'm not in a mood with you."

"Oh I have a feeling you'll forgive me before the hour is up." He turned on the full charm and stalked towards me, that's when I found out how weak I really was.

"Okay lovebirds, break it up!" I looked over Edwards shoulder from where I was leaning against the wall and saw Alice with a Santa hat on her petite head but the face underneath it looking at us disapprovingly.

I cleared my throat, with a small smile still lurking on my lips. "Sorry Alice." I untangled myself and just before I left I smacked him on his butt and winked. I'm sure my father would be horrified if he could see me now.

Edward and I were the last to enter the living room, as Adam and the others left my room shortly after the tickling attack and as there was only my armchair left, so Edward settled himself in first and I perched onto his lap.

"Presents!" Emmett squealed, clapping his hands. Thankfully the task of handing out presents was assigned to Kaiya, Alice and Rosalie.

A decent amount of presents were handed out to each person and we all took turns in opening them.

Carlisle gave Esme a small island off the coast of New Zealand, which she was ecstatic about and quickly made him a promise they'd be there before the year was up. Emmett bought Rosalie a beautiful new Lamborghini which wasn't due out onto the market for another few months. Joanne and Rob said they wouldn't spend over a certain amount on each other, so Joanne was given tickets to a premiere of a new opera in New York as she had told him she loved the opera. Jasper had managed to hide from his wife that he had created her own fashion label, under an alias as it may be difficult to explain the lack of aging in the pixie. Sam bought Kaiya a studio in Paris for her to display her art. Alice gave everyone a new wardrobe. Carlisle and Esme bought everyone their own personalised tablet in different colours. Rosalie and I teamed up and created each couple their own car from scratch and they do look quite good if I do say so myself. Emmett bought everyone tickets to the Amazon where the latest adventure holiday was voted world best, for two weeks. Kaiya gave everyone a self portrait, but Carlisle, Esme and I, where we were given a portrait of the Cullens and Swans, which I went and immediately hung in the foyer. Lorrie and Martiee gave us some personalised furniture, for example I was given a sea blue and emerald green swirled crystal vase, which was beautiful, sea blue because I just loved the colour and I've always loved the emerald green colour.

This was just a small amount of the presents, thankfully Alice thought ahead, and quickly pulled together some clothes for her from the Cullen's, and from my family, I decided to give her a motorbike which I originally built for myself but wasn't too bothered as I could easily build myself another. She was very pleased and slightly speechless.

When Emmett commented on the fact Edward hasn't given me a present, and that he must be trying to get rid of me, or wants me to kill him, Edward murmured in my ear that he had something planned for later.

After a few hours of games, a visit to the hospital and shelter to give out designer clothes which had only been worn once amongst other things, Edward and I were in my room chatting, while some were in the basement enjoying new games and console, and others were just milling around enjoying the peace and quiet before Emmett, Jasper, Lorrie and Jack were due to set off some fireworks, I dread to think.

He suddenly pulled me up off the sofa and suggested we go to my old house. I shrugged and followed curious as to why he wanted to go there of all places.

A short amount of time later, we were climbing through my old room window, looking exactly as I left it, except the floorboard was firmly back in place.

"I once told you that the time which gave me the courage to finally man-up and get to know you properly was the first night I came in here and watched you sleep, now I say it out loud I realise it was slightly creepy, but it was when you said my name in your sleep. You startled me so much! But you didn't know that about two nights after that, I said three words to you, three words that I foolishly tried to force you to forget 71 years ago. They were 'I love you', you had already ensnared me in those warm chocolate eyes which were so difficult to read. That was the moment when I knew what I wanted for the rest of my eternity, which was where you were by my side, however selfish that might be. The only reason I ran was because of the innocence in those eyes. But the next time I truly saw you, no matter what you had been through, that innocence was still there, this is what's giving me the courage to tell you to go back under that floorboard and pull out the last item, something I placed in there 69 years ago."

I looked sceptically at him, but knelt down and gently eased the floorboard out of its resting place, reached in and pulled out the small old-looking black box Edward hid from me the last time I was here. I straightened up, transfixed on the box, and gently pulled the lid up, revealing a gold ring inlaid with diamonds in a circular pattern. I gasped and looked at Edward just as he was getting down on one knee.

"Isabella Swan, would you do me the highest honour of becoming my wife?"

I brain was going in circles. I _never_ thought I would ever get married; especially not now I'm a vampire. But I immediately knew my answer as soon as I saw the ring.

"Yes."

His face beamed in happiness and relief and pulled me in for a long and passionate kiss. When we eventually pulled away, I let out a breathless giggle and he slid the ring onto my left ring finger. It fit perfectly.

"Well that was a relief." He chuckled.

"You thought I would say no?" I smiled wrapping my arms around his neck. Admiring how it glittered in the orange light of the sunset.

"Yes, actually. But I really hoped you would say yes."

"Damn, I should have tricked you then." I pecked him on the lips. "Now if you don't want to it doesn't matter, but would you mind if we didn't tell anyone till Valerie and Adam's wedding, it's only two weeks and I don't want to take it from them."

He smiled. "Of course, as long as you don't back out."

"Never."

**sHssHs**

"_Bella! Merry Christmas! How are you dear?"_My phone chirped in my ear as I climbed the stairs to my study.

"I'm great, thank you Aro. How is everyone back there?"

"_Almost fully recovered. Zafrina and Senna were wondering when it would be possible to impose upon your hospitality?"_

"Oh! Tell them to come whenever they want, as long as they call when they leave Volterra so we can prepare."

"_Of course! I've just heard about your eldest and his engagement, pass the congratulations on." _He sounded genuinely pleased at the fact, which caused a big smile on my face.

"They'll be pleased to hear it. Now..." I closed the door behind me, "any developments?"

"_No," he sighed. "He's always been a weak spot with... us. Bella, next time you come, there is something important I would like to speak to you about, regarding him."_

"You can tell me now if you like, the phone call is private on my end."

"_No, it's best in person my dear. Besides, I hate to ask once again, but can you join us after the wedding? Caius and Marcus are eager to catch him once and for all, they would especially like you there, even Caius."_

"Caius?" I scoffed. "Unlikely. I've only just convinced Jane to like me."

"_He, possibly grudgingly, admits you are essential to catch him."_

"Aro, his half-breeds even managed to get _me_, I'm not as essential as you think."

"_Please, just come. Merry Christmas Isabella."_

"Merry Christmas." I ended the call with a huff, and threw myself into my desk chair.

I quickly checked my emails, some off friends in the Volturi wishing me a happy Christmas, one of friends in Canada, Mexico, Greece and China wishing the same but also wondering when I would next visit. I quickly wrote a reply to each promising a week or two in the summer when we were off the pretence of school. I wrote one to Aimee, Ash and the family, letting them know how their adopted daughter was; I was surprised I hadn't received an email off them, but I'm sure they were just busy.

Lastly I responded to a worried email from Benjamin of the Egyptian Coven, his sire was killed a few years back after picking a fight with another vampire. So he was the leader of his coven which consisted of, his mate Tia and a boy of about 19 who he changed not long before his sire died. But he was emailing me as he had heard reports of whole families of vampires being killed with no warning, in random places at random times. He thought the Volturi should know but didn't want to contact Aro directly, as Aro has been pressuring him to join since he heard of his ability to control all the elements.

I highlighted the situation including some human newspaper articles and web links and sent it to the three leaders, one of them was bound to get it soon. I switched my laptop off and closed it. That was when I remembered the beautiful ring on my left finger. My face broke into a huge grin at the sight. I felt so comfortable with it on; I almost completely forgot it was there.

I stared at it for a full 5 minutes, then grudgingly slipped it off and placed it gently in my desk drawer. Everyone knows they aren't allowed to come in here, so I knew it would be safe. I comforted myself in the knowledge that in about two weeks it would be on my finger for the rest of my days.

Eventually I slid away from my desk and left my office almost tripping over my fiancé as I closed the door.

"Oh! How long have you been there?"

"About half an hour," He laughed and pulled me down next to him. "I understand that not everyone can go in there." He smiled.

"If you knock, I _may_ allow you in." I winked and rested my head against his shoulder.

"No, no. That's your place to do your business and where it's totally private, I'll only interrupt if I see you entering with another man." He chuckled and I laughed along with him.

"I can firmly assure you that will not happen."

Suddenly Joanne burst through the front door.

"Mum!"

I jumped up and leaped over the banister, landing lightly on my feet right in front of her.

"What's wrong?" I looked her over, worried by the tone of her voice.

"Rob got a call on the way home. It's his great-grandma. He's so upset. But she's asking for you."

"Where is she?"


	30. Decisions

**Slowly getting better, hopefully, at the updates, and I've almost finished the next chapter so fingers crossed it should be up next week. The beginning of this chapter came actually later than I planned but I'm dedicating it in memory of my great grandma who died on Christmas as the wonderful age of 91. Miss you!**

**Thanks to:**

**William the Werewolf | lost in golden eyes | ldjkitten | Courtney518 | SammyxWa | MaryMary123 | twilaliars97**

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**BPOV**

The vicar's voice rang through the cemetery as the last rose was placed on the freshly filled snow covered hole containing my friend.

I leaned against Edward, slightly numb. I never expected her to go so soon, she looked frail but there was such determination in her speech and demeanour that weirdly my brain couldn't process that she was gone.

In the hospital bed she looked so strong, even with all the tubes and machines surrounding her.

We simply talked about the past for a large amount of those two hours. Then we went onto Robert and Joanne, how she made me promise to never change him unless he was absolutely sure, and to look after her family. Then I told her about Edward and I, there were no vampires in the vicinity as Carlisle had taken the night off, she was so pleased that he finally asked, after I told her how it happened, giggling like we were seventeen once again.

Eventually she told me she was tired and wanted to be alone. I gave her a gentle hug and a kiss on the check, then left, before I closed the door my vampire ears picked up the sound of... nothing.

Less than two days later we were convened in Forks cemetery where she was buried next to my 'grave', side by side with her husband, as she requested. The headstone was simple.

Here lies

Angela Mary Webber Cheney

29th November 1989- 25th December 2076

A beloved mother, grandma and great-grandma

We will remember all you lived for.

I flashed an apologetic face to Angela's distraught family, who I had already been and spoken too, Jasper was in the tree-line with the rest of the Cullen's not erasing their grief, but trying to make it more bearable.

I suddenly realised I had to leave, then turned and ran at human speed through the snow, towards the exit, where I could take my car and get away from here.

But as I threw myself in my Audi, I sobbed and found Edwards arm wrapped around me before the passenger door could close.

"I never thought she would actually die, for some reason I even believed she would outlive me!"

"I'm sorry." He pulled me across and sat me on his lap and just murmured words to me occasionally.

"Why am I even crying?" I whispered angrily. "It's her family who have the right."

"She was the last tie to your human life, also she was probably truly the nicest person on the planet, and it's understandable. I'll admit that I'm even feeling her loss."

"It's moments like this which make me want to drink human blood, but it's also what strives me to do the opposite. If I was still on human blood now, I would wager that I wouldn't feel very much. But it seems that only when you can feel you want it, you want it. Getting there is the hardest."

"Times your thirst by at least ten and you have what a singer feels like."

"Thankfully I've never met mine then. It sounds... painful." I grimaced, imagining.

"It was, but it was worth going through it in the long run." He gently kissed the top of my head, then slid out from under me and settled into the drivers seat.

"You can drive, just this once." I said, curling up on my seat and focusing on the snowflakes landing on the window.

**sHssHs**

"So what do you think is going on?" I had eventually brought up the subject of targeted covens by the mysterious killer. It was New Years Eve today, but since Christmas two more covens have been killed, my friends in China and a group of four on an island.

"I honestly don't know, but we should be on our guard, the more of us the better." Everyone agreed with the doctors words.

"What has Aro said?" Adam asked, eyebrows knitted together in worry.

"Not a lot, but they're considering calling all covens to Volterra for protection, as Carlisle said, strength in numbers."

"So they don't have any idea?" Edward asked.

"No, and there isn't much to go on, no trails, and Demetri can't track them as he doesn't know who they are." I answered.

As I looked around at my family, I grew more and more worried. What if they came here next?

"You may be able to fight them. You're the big bad-ass vamp, why not?" Emmett said.

"The odds are 100 to 1, the Chinese coven I was friends with had a shield more powerful than Renata's but she can only cover you if you are within physical touch, so if everyone stood touching in a long line, she'd be able to protect you, she had the same kind of 'come for a month' contract I did, if she was killed, we don't have much chance."

There was silence while everyone thought of a way round this situation.

"We have something no-one else has though." Victoria chimed, making some jump, everyone but me looked at her clueless, and it seems both of us had the same thought at the same time. "We have Alice."

"I'll be useless if they don't make a decision, I've been evaded like that before." Alice chirped, looking slightly scared.

"You're better than nothing." I shrugged.

Everyone gave words of agreement and encouragement.

"Sam, read up as much as you can on mythical past, maybe something is in there." He nodded and went upstairs, Kaiya following.

"I have many books in my study; I'll have a look in those." Carlisle smiled and also left with Esme. I asked Lorrie, Victoria and Jasper to stay behind and help with some protective strategies.

Alice, Rosalie, Jack, Joanne and Adam decided to call and email any friends and invite them over for protection, but made sure they know it might be futile. Lastly, as I was busy, Edward, Valerie and Martiee offered to see the wolves and try to create a pact for any vampires coming into town and to see if they wanted to be involved in this.

After that, Edward, Emmett and Valerie are to put up some fight sessions to check how everyone can defend themselves.

**sHssHs**

"But the river would be the weak spot." Lorrie growled point at the map of the area.

"If we're being awkward, so would the earth! They could tunnel!" Victoria squeaked slammed her hand on the table.

Across the table from me Jasper had his head in his hands, and I was propped against the wall, with my feet on the table. This kind of arguing had been going on for the past... 3 hours. At least it seems everyone had the sense to not disturb.

"Patrol seems like our only option." Jasper said, rising from his hands.

"But it still leads to the problems of whether some slipped past, whether they are killed before an alarm is raised, and-"

"Okay Bella, I get the idea." Jasper murmured.

"All I was saying was that it seems like there are no safe options. They've managed to burn approximately 80 vampires in the past 8 months, and 30 of those were in the past 5 weeks."

"So what's the solution?" Lorrie murmured.

"Hang on." I was finally noticing a similarity to when Jeremy is trying to pull you out of your body. To no surprise I quickly found myself in the 'sun tower' which was mainly a room at the top of the southern Volturi castle where the whole ceiling was stained glass and was filled with plush sofa's a cushions.

"Hi... everyone." Sure enough as I looked around me, practically all the Volturi were present, even those, who like me, have been summoned here by Jeremy. As I noticed all this, the last two popped up, Eleazar from the Denali coven and Valerie, slightly transparent like me, Jeremy sank into the nearest chair looking extremely pale.

"Now everyone is finally here we can begin." Aro said, his brows knitted together in deep worry.

"I'm sure you all know why you have been summoned here, but to clarify we need to do something about this... group who seem to be picking us all off." Caius added from his throne against the far wall.

"My brothers and I believe it may be best to invite what's left of the vampire population here, but we would like to hear your views, as this is your home too." Marcus finished.

"Easier to pick us all off, all in one place." Jane said.

"Not necessarily, with everyone, the range of powers may be able to stop them." Her twin contradicted.

"Well I've already started to invite any vampires I can get hold of to stay with the Cullens and my family, but we can't get hold of the nomads unless we leave and physically find them."

"The nomads might be the ones to survive," Demetri pointed out. "They'll be harder to find. No nomads had been killed so far."

"That you know of." Heidi argued.

There was silence for a few minutes.

"Maybe we should have four places around the world, and those nearest can go there, like a refugee camp of sorts." Chelsea suggested.

"Still risky, but if we have many attack and defence abilities in each, it might work..." Quentin mused.

"We could do that, but if one is attacked, an order is sent out for the other two to come here or to Forks." Madeline said.

"I don't like it very much, but it is a good idea." Aro paced. "Who agrees?"

Over three quarters of the Volturi raised their hands, minus Caius, Aro, Quentin, Valerie and a few others including myself.

"That settles it. Until further notice that is the plan. Forks, Volterra, Canberra, and Cairo. Some fighters will be sent as soon as possible. Good luck." Aro turned away wafted a hand at Jeremy and found myself back in my dining room.

"What happened?" Adam asked from where he was leaning in the doorway.

"Most of the Volturi decided we are going to be one of the four 'refugee camps' for vampires."

"What no actual strategy?" Victoria gaped.

"If one of the four gets attacked, everyone either comes here or to Volterra, the latter being the priority." Valerie said, appearing behind her fiancé.

"Say hello to the other side." Joanne laughed bitterly.

**sHssHs**

"Well Jacob is open to thinking about the situation, but he won't help unless all of the pack agrees."

"Fair enough, I would probably do the same anyway." I rested my head on Edwards lap and curled my legs up on the sofa next to me.

"Apparently Sam and Carlisle haven't found anything yet, but the others have managed to get hold of the majority of our friends, also an official message was sent to registered vampires about the plan. We should have a full house by the end of the week."

"Fair point, but who's house are we using?" I said.

"Carlisle says ours can be used." Edward said.

"Depending on how many come, we may as well use both, keep so many Volturi in each and have an open communication just in case."

He nodded in agreement and absentmindedly stroked my hair.

"You took your ring off a few weeks ago..."

"It's in a safe place, don't worry I would brave fire for that piece of jewellery." I smiled and kissed his palm. "The way you say a few weeks, makes me think you noticed but didn't say anything...?" I raised my eyebrow and grinned.

"Maybe." He chuckled.

"Love you."

"Forever and always." With that he leaned down and kissed me. With him was one of the only times I felt like everything else could wait.

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**Please review, I do appreciate them, good or bad, also a review=a preview :)**


	31. Everyone enjoys a wedding

**Thanks:**

**Lozanic | Correlle-bw | jessicaluvs1d | CharlotteSoanes1990 | PurplePandasLoVe | BellaMarieSwanCullen97 | TwilightWriter | sigi87 | lyarnah5 | **Andrea** | Rachel loves Edward | bornon 13 | nazgullover**

* * *

**BPOV**

"No! Turning your back is a childish move!" I growled at my opponent who I had beaten for the three-hundred-and-eightieth time, even though this thirty year old vampire has never fought, I was getting frustrated at how easily I could still beat a few without more than 5 seconds of a fight. They're like sitting ducks.

"She's losing it again." A chuckle came from the edge of the lawn.

"Joanne Maxwell Swan, if you think you can do better, you are welcome to try!" I shouted glaring at her while simultaneously putting the poor vampire in a 'death hold'.

Joanne shrugged and walked up, while I instructed my dead opponent to take twenty minutes out and then go train with Valerie as she is better teaching the newer ones, but it's been found that if they still can't learn they get sent to me, who jolts them back to reality.

Joanne shouted go, and thanks to get super fast ability, she managed to evade me for a minute before I 'killed' her.

"You were saying?" I chuckled relieved to have someone who may possibly escape.

She merely growled. We did this for about two hours, and I pointed out what she was doing wrong and told her ways to rectify it. Most of the visitors gathered round at this point, as many of them found they could pick up hints and tricks this way, my last opponent hadn't bothered to visit any sessions which was why they were sent to me.

"Okay, that's enough for one day! You can all go over to the Cullen's and help out for tomorrow!" I called an end to the proceedings and proceeded up to Sam's office.

Victoria, Valerie, Eleazar, Edward, Adam, Sam, Carlisle, Lorrie, Jasper and a few other new vampires who knew something of strategies were present. Two of them were from Southern America, one was called Peter and he was one of Jasper's nomad friends, and another was called Maria who was involved in the old newborn wars with Jasper, she now had a mate and was reportedly more amiable. Also there was Tom and Hollie who like to live in Greenland and were both involved in a human war thirty years ago. Annabelle was here as was Santiago, the three other Volturi members, including Quentin, were at the Cullen's protecting those there. There were also a few others but since they arrived they kept to themselves.

"Having fun, love?" Edward smiled and grabbed my hand.

"You would have thought that with over a month of training, some would be better." I sighed.

"They are getting there, it's better than when we started."

"Hope so. Anyway, what's happened recently?" I reached onto the desk where my tablet was resting and looked through my emails. "Okay still about five covens are yet to be accounted for, but scouts have not found any evidence as to killings, or any killings for the past three weeks."

I frowned as I still saw my friends names among those still unaccounted for, I still hadn't told Martiee her adopted family are missing. But I was once again relieved to not see my father's name on the list of dead nomads. Although, I was getting extremely worried about him. I heard from him new years eve but not since then. He was in China at that point.

"Doesn't really change much then." Lorrie mused.

"No, but we need to clarify everything for tomorrow." Eleazar said solemnly, suddenly Adam and Valerie's faces lit up.

"How about you two spend some time together?" Carlisle suggested.

Usually Adam would argue, as he hated to be left out of things, but he practically grabbed Valerie and sped out the room while she laughed, closing the door behind them.

"I sent everyone over to help set things up for tomorrow. Now, Adam has vehemently expressed he wants all the family there, especially me, so you need to take over the protection of the ceremony, but I'll do the reception."

"Well I'm sure those of us from the Volturi will do the protection during both points." Santiago told us in his rumbling voice.

"And I could think of at least ten of us who wouldn't mind in the slightest not being involved in the proceedings, no offence to any of you." Jonäthon, I think his name is, volunteered.

"None taken. Eleazar, would you mind if you took charge of the ceremony?" I asked.

"Of course not."

"Now how many are we posting and how far out?" Jasper asked, looking at the map.

"I propose three circles, first one about a mile from the house, the next two miles away from that circle, and the third two miles away from that circle. That way they are close enough to hear a raised alarm, but also far enough away to prepare. I suggest fifty at the ceremony, so that leaves sixty around the perimeter." Said Lorrie.

It was true that we had many vampires, but our area spread over more than one continent, but also there were over five hundred registered vampires in the world, so our numbers weren't too big.

"We could have more at the ceremony, but if everyone but close family swapped over, minus Bella, then everyone could enjoy it?" Tom suggested.

"That's a good idea. So if we draw up two groups, one for the first half, one for the second then post it. It's sorted." Hollie finished.

We spent the next half an hour assessing who works best with who, to put them in pairs, and who would be best in which place.

Then Lorrie and I went to replace two of the guards to the north of our house, from there we run for a mile each way, but in such a way that it is a alternate times to the guard in each segment. There wasn't much chitchat during this time but it was necessary and we all felt less tense knowing someone was on patrol, even if some were beginning to let their guard down as it had been a month and a half since the order was sent out, and since no attack... well let's just say some were becoming less interested in their duties.

After the usual four hours of this, there next pair turned up and Lorrie and I left to get ready for the wedding which was approaching in about eight hours.

"So, Adam's finally getting married." I said.

"He certainly is, took him long enough. You soon?" He grinned at me, his black hair messy from running.

"Maybe." I shrugged, trying to contain my happiness.

"Get off it! You either are desperate to be engaged or already are." He laughed.

"You're too intuitive for your own good." I muttered with a small smile.

"Well it's common sense, you rub your left ring finger quite a lot when you're thinking, which is better than the gnawing on your own lip that you used to do."

"Enough of this now, it's your brother's big day. But speaking of weddings, when are you two going to re-tie the knot as vampires?"

"Oh, I hadn't really thought about it, maybe in a few years? I'll have to talk to her about it."

We were coming to the point where we were splitting off, Lorrie to our house and I to the Cullen's. "See you in a bit, don't forget to bring anything valuable with you, Edward's getting my stuff."

"Sure mom, don't let Alice kill you!" He chuckled evilly as he sped off.

I reluctantly made my way to the Cullens', nodding and smiling to everyone who I passed, adding final touches to the canopy where they were getting married and where the reception was being held.

When I got upstairs I was met with a surprising sight, a _calm_ Alice.

"Okay Bella can you do Valerie's hair and make-up? Then we'll do your hair, get you changed and you can go find Adam." I smiled, relieved, and went off to Edwards's bathroom, as all the others were being used for the bridesmaids.

"Hey hun, how are you doing?"

"Nervous but really excited at the same time." Valerie paused her nervous pacing.

I waved a hand in dismissal. "Everything will be fine! Where's your sister?"

"She's making sure everything is perfect outside, also Alice doesn't want anyone seeing me until the aisle, in case Adam 'uses his sneaky powers like that nosey brother' on anyone, but you can put your shield up." She shrugged.

"She's a bit mental sometimes that one," I laughed and sat her down in the chair.

I quickly did her make-up, mainly adding lipstick and eye make-up, but I had to try each shade till I found the one I deemed perfect. Then I twisted her hair up in many different ways until we found one we both liked, we hadn't had any time to practise this, as both of us have been helping to train the vampires. Eventually we liked one where her fiery hair was curled softly but then swept up into a sleek bun.

During the next few hours we ended up talking about our vampire mates, things Valerie had learnt about Edward which I didn't know yet, and things about Adam I knew yet she didn't. It was a rather insightful time.

After I finished her hair, she offered to do mine as she knew what Alice wanted done, while she did that, I quickly added some mascara and a soft pink lipstick. When my hair was done in a bun with curled bits hanging down, as opposed to the bridesmaids who had their hair half up in a bun and half down, I told Valerie to wait there while I slipped into Edwards closet where I quickly changed into my pale silver dress, grabbed Valerie's dress and a little gift bag.

I hung her dress on the back of the door and gave her the bag after I pulled out a small box.

"Now that," I gestured to the gift bag, "Is a gift from your beloved which he wants you to wear. Oh and the garter in there is a present from Kaiya." I grinned while she pulled out the lacy underwear.

"Men." She sighed, but shot me a smiled and shooed me off so she could change.

In a few minutes she called me back in so I could tighten things and add final touches.

"Now, this is my gift to you for the day. Something old, borrowed, and blue." I opened the small box which was some silver combs with sapphires inlaid into them. "They were my grandma's, my dad gave them to me before he left." I smiled and slid them into her hair.

"They are beautiful, thank you very much Bella." She gave me a hug.

There came a rap at the bedroom door and I looked at my watch.

"That's my cue; see you in a few minutes and you do look beautiful."

I exited as Victoria slid into the room with a squeal. I gave a thumb up to Alice as I passed, giving me a nod of approval then rushed back to give final touches to the bridesmaids.

I made my way onto the trail for about thirty seconds, where it led to a small clearing. Due to the crisp snow covering everything, the carpet was purple, as was the chairs and the flowers. Violets were weaved into a canopy, where my eldest son was waiting.

"She is still coming right?" He asked as I reached him.

"Of course she is!" I laughed and pulled him in for a gentle hug. "Don't want to crease that lovely tux."

I smoothed his hair and jokily chatted with him and the others for a minute then went to the left of the groomsmen where Edward was sat with a tux on by a grand piano.

"Dashing!" I grinned and pulled his head up for a kiss.

"Why thank you, you look... average I suppose." He winked and I slapped him playfully on the arm.

Suddenly all the groomsmen all went back to the start of the aisle, and I ran to stand next to Adam in front of the canopy under which Tom was stood, who was actually a vicar in his human life. Edward began a gentle tune.

"You look like a strange best man." He hissed and chuckled, looking slightly pale.

"Correction, an awesome best man."

The silvery grey groomsmen, paired with a purple bridesmaid each, were strolling down the aisle. There wasKaiya with Sam, then Emmett and Rosalie, Lorrie and Martiee, Alice and Jasper then Jack with Joanne. As the tune gently changed to a lovely tune based off the original wedding march, Valerie entered the meadow being brought by her sister. As soon as Adam saw her his face lit up, almost unrecognisably and that's when I realised how much I truly was happy for my adopted son.

I looked over my shoulder to find Edward already staring at me lovingly. I peeled my shield back momentarily just so Edward could see my thought. _I can't wait for our turn_.

He grinned in happiness and I turned back to the ceremony.

The couple made their own vows and Tom added some of the religious vows into it, I provided the simple gold rings, Adam's was slightly thicker than Valerie's, and then they were married.

Everyone cheered simultaneously and handfuls of purple petals were thrown over them, you could even hear cheers from in the forest.

I waited until most of the vampires had congratulated them, then with Edward; we went and gave our own congratulations. I threw my arms around both of them.

"Mr Adam Jones and Mrs Valerie Jones, it fits so well." I squealed and clapped.

Edward shook Adams hand with a smile and kissed Valerie on the cheek.

"Congratulations you two."

Eventually we all went to the lawn by the house where the reception was being held. I had been out and bought a fair amount of blood from various blood banks in the state, also Emmett and the boys went out and bought large amounts of animal blood form butchers and even from animals in the surrounding forests. Not a usual reception for humans, but very normal and more tame than most vampire weddings.

I stayed for the toasts, where I made a speech as the 'best lady', mainly stories of Adam and me when he was a newborn, and various moments since.

After that I snuck off to Edwards's room, where I quickly slipped out of my silvery dress, changing into dark jeans and a black turtleneck with black boots.

After I hung my dress in his closet the bedroom door opened and Edward was stood there in his grey suit.

"Trying to sneak away?"

"No, I'm just trying to not bother Adam." I shrugged closing the closet door.

"Why do I get the feeling he isn't quite aware you are going off on his wedding day?"

"He might know, I don't know. Why?"

"Bella, you never take time out from work to be with your family. You're always training or talking tactics or guarding the perimeter. You can't take a couple of hours to relax!" He said, sounding annoyed.

"Why are you so bothered? I am trying to help us beat whatever this thing is."

"But it's always something like that. It's either the Volturi for a month or two, or a week away to go put yourself in danger, or go and try to get yourself killed going to fight that Joham vampire. The last time you have actually relaxed for one day in the past year or so, was Christmas."

"That _is_ my job. Protecting my family."

"I think they'd rather you be alive to be with them than die protecting them, don't you?"

"But if I sat by and watched them get killed because I didn't do anything, I couldn't live with myself!"

"Do you not think they feel the same? I would volunteer to take a thousand years of the worst imaginable torture to save my family, heck even yours." He walked over to me and gently grasped my shoulders.

"I would have to die before I let you do that."

"But I would put up with that so you didn't die, see the dilemma?"

I sighed and hugged him.

"I do see your point, but until this whole thing is over, nothing is going to change about me." I let go and left him standing there looking rather sad.

I went to the middle circle as it was the easiest spot to help.

"Bella, how are you? The wedding was lovely." Tanya smiled at me.

"I'm great thank you. They have certainly outdone themselves on this one, all of them organised it."

We patrolled for the next eight hours where nothing happened, thankfully. Then I made my way back to my house, as it rained a lot and there ended up being a whole lot of mud which I trudged through.

I took a shower and dressed into some pale blue jeans and a cream sweater, then went into my study.

I quickly fired up my laptop and flicked through emails. Still no more attacks. Aro sent a email saying Jeremy will call at exactly half two AM to me, I looked at my watch and saw I had four seconds. Sure enough my vision changed and I was sat in an armchair as opposed to my desk chair.

"Thanks for the warning this time." I smiled at the Volturi leader while briefly looking around, seeing Benjamin and a vampire named Isobel.

"Quick catch up, Benjamin is the leader of the Cairo camp and he has a ability for controlling the elements, Isabella is the leader of the Forks camp and is a defensive and offensive shield and Isobel is the leader of the Canberra camp and she has the talent of having an intuition of upcoming danger.

"We called you here as an hour ago Isobel contacted us and believes that the threat is coming tonight, at one of us. Because of this the connection is loose so if something begins to happen you will know about it. But we want to check over emergency plans.

"For example if our camp is attacked a message will be sent out from one of us," he gestured to himself and his brothers, "and then everyone is to travel to Forks. If my brothers and I are killed Bella is appointed new leader, I assume you have appointed a successor if anything happened to you?"

I nodded. "Carlisle, I spoke to him and he assures me he would do what needs to be done."

"Carlisle, good... if we can't no doubt he will put an end to all this. Anyway, everyone knows what the alarm is, and if anyone else is attacked the immediate action to get as many as possible to Volterra, we would rather have an idea of who this is as opposed to a pile of dead vampires who decided to 'take down as many as possible'.

"Also evacuation, once the alarm has sounded you all know the spot where the planes are hidden, Quentin said he'll help where he can as well, even if it's transporting the plane a couple of miles south. Whoever's camp is attacked Quentin will go and help."

Suddenly my skin felt rather hot, I looked down but only saw my transparent body. I frowned.

"Are you alright Bella?" Marcus asked.

"Erm..." My vision flickered and I saw my study but I also heard someone scream. Aro jumped and pulled his necklace out which glowed green.

"Send Bella back now! The alarm has been-"

Immediately I was back in my study, I could see fire outside my window and creeping under the door. The room was dense with smoke but before I could even attempt an escape four vampires ran at me.

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**Apologies if this chapter was confusing. Please review.**


	32. Hallucinations

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**BPOV**

I quickly ducked under an arm of one, and leaped over another, trying to find away to the balcony doors, I'd feel safer fighting out of the flames. Reflexively I tightened my shield around my mind and those fighting others outside. I also tightened my physical shield around myself, and draped it over my allies, hopefully preventing bites but not much more than that, meaning I could spread it over a larger area.

Just as I made sure everyone was under my shield, the other two were just about reaching me, and the first two I avoided were close behind. My eyes flickered to the flames growing around me but one of the half-breeds was reaching to bite my arm, I didn't want to get _that_ close, regardless of my shield so I slid my arm up and away, my hand landed on the back of the vampire's neck, I swiftly pulled its head off and threw it into the fire, which was steadily creeping up behind me.

Then the next few minutes consisted of ducking, diving and missed attacks. Neither side was gaining the upper hand, yet the fire was still advancing. These were obviously some of the best fighters among Joham's children.

Suddenly the oldest looking one shouted something, and then a certain point of my shield was attacked, all towards my fiancé. I gasped and that gave them the upper hand, each of them dived and one's teeth managed to tear the skin on my hand, injecting the burning venom. I hissed and kicked them off, swiftly decapitating them. Yet as I was occupied with that the other two dived at me, trying to dodge them, I jumped backwards. The venom was already muddling my system so I leaped back into the fire, I screamed and dived back out, rolling on the floor to put my clothes out, thankfully my skin wasn't too bad.

While I was still on the floor the last two siblings attacked me, landing bites everywhere on my body. All I could feel was pain, stopping me from fighting them off. Suddenly something like a switch flicked in my mind, and it was if all my pain was switched off, and it had turned to an animalistic need to survive.

I threw them off, and ran at top speed for the glass doors, running through the fire and leaping out into the fresh air. I flew for a few minutes then landed flat on the ground. I jumped up, looking for my attackers, but saw them run off in the trees. I sped after them, wanting revenge. I almost immediately caught up with one of them, ripping them to pieces, and then carried on after the other.

Just before I caught up with them, something knocked me sideways, flattening me, but not harming me. I growled deeply, throwing them off and then stalked towards them.

"Bella, calm down!" He stood up, holding his hands up. Before I dived all I could think was what a stupid vampire. But then a fiery haired vampire stood in front of me blocking my path.

"Turn it back on."

I raised my arm to kill them.

"Isabella Swan. Turn your feelings back on before we have to restrain you or before you kill us." She stared me down, but as she didn't attack I thought through what she said.

Slowly but warily I reversed what happened in the study, crumpling to the floor in pain.

"How did you know?" I heard Adam asked not far away.

"She told me once that one of the Volturi had been teaching her to turn her emotions off so she wasn't distracted. When I saw her, I knew, it reminded me of animal instinct." Victoria replied while Edward picked me up. I gasped at the touch to my tender body.

"Come on, let's get to the plane." Were the last words I heard before my senses were cut off.

**sHssHs**

_I could do nothing. I was held in place by faceless vampires while everyone I love was brought in front of me and I was forced to look in their eyes while they were ripped to pieces and thrown into the growing fire that was situated not far behind the victims._

_Lastly came Edward, he looked so sorrowful, and I could almost see the question in his eyes for why I didn't help. But my shield wouldn't work. All I could do was fight harder and scream harder but it all ended the same way. With me watching his body become consumed by the flames._

_The fight left me, and eventually the restraints left and it was only the pyre and I. All I wanted to do was to look away, but I just couldn't. It pained me worse than any torture could._

_Eventually I noticed another presence behind me, but I didn't look up. I would rather be killed and added to the fire._

_"Sorry about that Bella, I can't control my children very well." Joham knelt next to me on the cold slushy ground. I just kept silent, my attention on the horrific scene in front of me._

_"Oh stop fretting. Life carries on while you swim in your little pool of pain. I have big plans for the world. A vampire who won't hide, yet is still half human, so blending in is still simple. I have no intentions of killing every human but they need to know we exist. Do you honestly believe that all of those there would have agreed?" He gestured in front of me. "Some of those agreed to join me, I need mothers to look after my children as the incubators die, and fathers for new ones. But I have a proposition for you. Why don't you become my... I suppose you could say Queen, but really someone who will rule alongside me. You have a fabulous mothering instinct and you are an extremely powerful vampire, I just regret you aren't a male, you would have made some amazing children!" He sighed disappointedly._

_I still ignored him._

_"Oh Isabella, are you feeling alright? Notice the burning sensation yet?"_

_Now that he mentioned it I did notice the tingling, just underneath my skin which I suddenly realised had been there this whole time, but was less painful than it was at first, but shortly after I noticed it, it was numbed and my eyes returned to the dying fire, which had been burning for an immeasurable time._

_"Hm, they must have finally got the dosage right. I admit I was surprised I had you for this long." He chuckled then moved around so I had to look at him._

_There was something I recognised about him: the dark hair, the nose, the shape of the eyes... also a tattoo which slightly showed through the front of his white shirt looked vaguely familiar._

_"We only have a little time left. I'll be back for you soon, but when you have recovered, I'm not one to attack a lady such as yourself when they're not themselves. Fairness and all." He winked and walked off; leaving me slightly confused but by now my brain was too slow and tired to think much. Eventually I managed to close my eyes and drift off._

**sHssHs**

Bit by bit I came back to myself. Noticed little things, like the softness of a mattress supporting my body, the gentle tugging of my hair being brushed, and a soft murmur in the background.

Eventually I opened my eyes, wincing at the bright sunlight streaming from a window by the bed. I rubbed my head and sat up, confused.

I was suddenly engulfed in a hug and cry of surprise. I cried out in surprise myself, then I finally recognised where I was.

"What happened?"

"Oh Bella!" Edward released his hug somewhat so he could kiss me.

The door opened and my family, the Cullen's and the three Volturi leaders waltzed in.

"Bella! Lovely to see you awake!" Aro cried, beaming. Even Caius and Marcus were smiling.

"W-w-what?" I mumbled frowning.

Seeing my confusion they all explained what had happened.

After the wedding, everyone was over at the Cullen's when Alice had a vision that we needed to leave, but she couldn't see very well. Shortly after she announced this, the alarm was raised over at my house, which was in flames. As everyone approached the house half-breeds came running out the house attacking everyone, but not killing, not even poisoning them, if they could avoid it.

Everyone fought, three on our side unfortunately died. It was only when the first person was bitten that people noticed I wasn't shielding anymore, and quickly realised I wasn't there. Not long after that, something was heard from inside the house and all the half-breeds turned on Edward. Not for long though, their previous opponents quickly reoccupied them.

Suddenly they heard me scream and Edward shouted to Quentin that I was probably in the house, but he was fighting about three half-breeds and didn't have a chance to teleport. But it wasn't long before I flew out the window and actually landed right in the centre of the fighting, but immediately ran off after two others.

After the others had seen me, they, for some reason, all left. Edward and my family ran after me, but Edward got there first, knocking me out the way, he was who I almost attacked, but thankfully Victoria got there and then I pretty quickly 'lost rationality' from the wounds. Apparently I just fought and screamed a load of nonsense.

Quentin met them on the way, and after seeing me, transported me to the plane, where some of the other bitten ones were, but they were healed in a few hours.

After trying to give me the antidote to the half-breed's poison, they quickly realised it wasn't going to work. During all this, I had been fighting during the hallucinations so much they had to hold me down.

Eventually it was agreed I was to be taken by Quentin to Volterra to be treated. It took them a while but they finally 'got the dosage right' and I was on the mend.

Aro told me he was amazed I was actually still alive; apparently I was 'more poison than vampire'. I had been out of it for almost two weeks, and I still felt a bit iffy. Alec's power didn't work on me until a few days ago, so they couldn't take the pain away either.

They were all curious as to what I had seen while in my hallucinatory state, but as soon as they asked I clammed up and turned into my mate's chest, keeping quiet until they dropped the subject.

One by one they all left, we all talked about what had happened while I was 'out', which wasn't much, no-one else was dead, and by now even all the nomads had heard and were either here, or making their way.

Once everyone but Edward had left, I mentioned I was thirsty and he left the room for ten seconds then was back with a huge jug of blood.

"You're allowed human until you're recovered, that's it, no more slips."

I shrugged and agreed just drank until my thirst was sated, which was a _lot_.

"You scared me you know." He told me as I placed the glass on the bedside table.

"Sorry. Really." I said sincerely, I could imagine how I would feel if it was reversed, but all I kept picturing was his face as it crumbled away for fuel. I closed my eyes tightly and shuddered.

"Was it that bad?" He whispered softly, sliding over and holding me tightly.

"The worst I've felt. It felt so real." I whispered back just as softly.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

"It won't help, but as you will one day be my husband, who is meant to know everything, right? And vice versa."

I quickly but quietly told him what happened only giving the general gist, but I was able to remember exactly the order everything happened which I unconsciously told him, but I told him everything I remembered about the last part.

"So do you think the last part was real?"

"It's possible, but how can you tell? I can assure you the worst part didn't happen though." His voice cracked halfway through, still upset himself from my account.

"I hope so." For some reason I still wasn't convinced.

"Bella, look at me. I am here, this is real. What you experienced was horrific but was made up. I _promise_ you with every fibre of my being."

I sighed and nodded, I sort of believed him, and I just can't imagine those images ever leaving my memory. Plus the encounter with the big daddy vampire seemed weirdly real.

"But I do have a present for you." He smiled while I looked up at him. Then he pulled my engagement ring out of his pocket. I beamed and immediately held my left hand out, where it slid on perfectly.

"Alice and a few others went back to the house on the way and got most of our stuff, they all know about it by now."

"I _love_ your sister. Why didn't they say anything?"

"I asked them not to until I had returned the ring. I Love you."

"I know." I smiled.

**sHssHs**

"Are you sure they said these burns will go?" I asked Edward while I was slipping on some new jeans Heidi bought me.

"They said it would take a few months, but eventually, yes."

I grumbled pulling on a long sleeved top.

"Bella, you've only been properly recovering for two weeks."

"And for those two weeks I have been sat in this room doing nothing." I crossed my arms grumpily.

"Oh, nothing? Hm."

"Okay, maybe not _nothing_..." I grinned, feeling embarrassed. "But nothing to do with Joham."

"The venom only properly left your system a few days ago, and you're nowhere near your full strength yet. Besides five days ago you were screaming at a sock thinking it was a deadly snake."

"I was hallucinating okay!" I glared at him. "But it's still irritating!" I whined, he jumped off the bed and walked past me towards the closet.

"Stop whinging, you're relatively free now." He grinned and I turned away so he could get changed without me distracting him.

"So where are we going?" He asked, hugging me from behind.

"The 'meeting' room, the 'throne' room which you have usually seen is for outside business. Then I'm going to show you the Sun Tower." I leaned back into him, slightly but secretly needing the support. That half-breed venom was nasty; it was bad enough that I had it in my system for so long.

I pulled Edward along and eventually we reached the meeting room which wasn't actually far from the throne room.

When we entered I was converged by my friends in the Volturi, as Aro forbade them from going to see me, as 'too much may slow the healing process'. Pfffft.

They were all, to say the least, pleased to see me... even Jane, who gave me a huge hug and some kind words in my ear.

After some time, I was eventually able to sit down at the huge table. Unfortunately my family weren't allowed as it was official Volturi business, but after some coaxing the three leaders agreed that Edward could join, as long as he didn't voice his opinions unless asked.

**sHssHs**

It took a few hours, but eventually a decision was made. Everyone was going to fight, if they didn't they would be branded a traitor and would have a death sentence on their head.

Some people weren't in complete agreement on the death sentence, but had to grudgingly agree that everyone should pull their weight, as it's likely that Joham would hunt them down and kill them anyway. They may as well die while trying to make a difference.

After this was over, Edward and I went to the Sun Tower and simply enjoyed each other's company until about 7PM, where Alice, Rosalie and Kaiya whisked me away, did my makeup, hair, and dressed me in a lovely gold dress for my engagement party.

For, I think, the first time in my life, vampire or human, I didn't mind being the centre of attention

I even accepted presents with a genuine smile, regardless of the price. I simply enjoyed being able to be with my whole family and all my friends and being able to forget reality. Just focus on Edward and myself.

Aro announced that they would love it if we could have the wedding here in Volterra, after a smile and a nod from Edward, I agreed to, although no date was set.

The celebration lasted until dawn, where I was almost dead on my feet. Edward carried me back to our room and we enjoyed truly being with each other, for another few hours. By the end of all this, I was half asleep, unfortunately.

My soon-to-eventually-be-husband went and brought me some blood from the fridge which did perk me up considerably.

"One month huh?"

"Yeah, that's how long we wait, or we find Joham ourselves." I murmured.

"We need some family time, as well as time to ourselves. Before you know it you'll be whisked into training too." His sombre face sparked in the afternoon sunlight from the window.

"Agreed, I would give it about two weeks. Let's say half a day with family, I'll have a couple of hours aside for Volturi business then the rest is just us?"

"I like that idea, it pacifies everyone." He kissed me on the top of my head. Then we just lay in comfortable silence, but as it has been for the past two weeks, whenever I am actually given a moment alone my previous hallucinations come to the forefront of my mind.

I haven't told Edward about them, as it'll just make him worry but he has often noticed something was wrong. This was one of those times.

"Bella? What's wrong? Why are you so tense?"

"Nothing." I replied after a moment, bring myself back to the present.

"Don't lie to me Bella, please."

"Okay, it's something but nothing important." I shrugged, sitting up.

"If something is bothering you, then it is important. I'm hoping we will be together for _many_ more years."

"I do understand, but it's just me, and talking about it will not help in the slightest. So there is no point burdening you when I would feel happier you not knowing. If it makes you feel any better, it's nothing that can truly harm me." I kissed him on the cheek and slid out of the sheets. "I'm going for a shower; get all of this out my hair."

He nodded, looking annoyed but resigned.

"Hey," he looked at me. "Edward, honestly honey, stop worrying. I don't want you to get wrinkles now." I smiled wryly at him, and eventually his creased forehead his smooth out and he smiled back.

"Go and get showered, you look like the wicked witch of the west with that hair." He laughed and ducked from the pillow I launched at him.

As extra punishment I purposely walked teasingly towards the bathroom and just before I closed the door I blew a kiss and announced he wasn't joining me because of that remark and locked the door. He growled quite loudly at me.

I was halfway through my shower by the time he broke the lock, but during that time all I could think about was how familiar Joham looked. Like a family member of someone I know...

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**Hint hint hint... (if i'm honest i don't think him being related to someone will impact too much it's just a typical soap opera moment, feel free to guess who it is though. But if you go on twitter i might possibly drop some hints about the tattoo, it is important.)**

**Your name will be included in the next chapter even if you just add this story to alert. Don't worry hopefully only a handful of chapters left now.**


	33. Venantium

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**BPOV**

"Trees!"

"Floppy arms?"

"Willow..."

"Oh! Wind in the willows!"

Thanks to the outdated castle we were staying in, the Swans and Cullen's decided to enjoy a game of charades. Let's put it this way, I had given up.

"Who's next?" Joanne asked, glad for a distraction. Rob and his family were still in Forks, she was currently trying to petition the leaders for them to stay somewhere in Volterra. But Rob's family didn't want to leave; they didn't really know what was going on.

"Well I personally think that's enough for now." Adam said while he stretched.

"Agreed!" I piped up, shooting a grin at him when he looked amused.

Quickly people dispersed into groups to do their own little tasks, whether it was to go and paint some portraits, go for some shopping etc. In the end Edward, Valerie, Adam and I all decided to go for a hunt, as I was officially off human.

At some point Edward and Valerie sped off to get prey of their own, and it was just Adam and I. We sat on a fallen log in the forest.

"So how have you been?" I asked my oldest son.

"Quite good, they come on more often now though." He sighed, reflexively rubbing the thick scar on his right shoulder.

"I'm sorry." I sighed, Valerie had alerted me to the fact he was having more and more trouble controlling his anger, and I still felt responsible regardless.

"Don't be, can't change it, well... I could stop myself going absolutely crazy. Sam keeps telling me to let it out, because 'small ones are better than building up till you burst'." He rolled his eyes, and then looked at me. "What's bothering _you_?"

I think I looked slightly startled, I had forgotten how well he knew me.

"Things." I drew my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, resting my chin on top.

"Bella... we may not have talked properly in a while but that doesn't mean I've stopped knowing when it's more than 'things'."

"I haven't, really, told Edward what exactly is bothering me."

"Is that meant to deter me?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Admittedly, yes." I sighed; he was going to get it out of me anyway. "When I was injected with the venom, I saw some horrible things," I shuddered, "but I also saw something which I can't decide whether it's real or not and there's something in it which is bothering me."

"What is it?"

"I don't know. It was a tattoo I recognised it but it keeps escaping me where it comes from." I frowned once again seeing that faint pattern through the shirt.

"Have you talked to anyone else about it?"

"Well I told Edward about what happened in the hallucinations, but he doesn't know about the tattoo."

"Maybe he'll know?" Adam suggested.

"I don't think he will..."

We sat in silence for a few moments.

"So how have _you_ been, other than that?"

"Still not quite back to full strength, but it has only been a month, and in two weeks I should be back to normal."

He nodded. "I can tell, it's the way you're slouching, you've always had good posture."

"Pfffft, you're just making it up now." I laughed, trying to straighten my back.

"Nope, knowing someone for almost 69 years does that to you." He grinned then pulled me in for a hug.

"I'm going to do my hardest to protect you all you know." I murmured looking through the blooming spring branches at the glowing orange sky.

"I'm sure you will, but don't get yourself killed trying to do it."

**sHssHs**

"Hey mom! Come to see my paintings?" Kaiya asked, beaming with a huge splodge of forest green on her forehead and a streak of gold across her nose.

"Of course! You have been nagging me for weeks!" I winked and kissed her on the forehead. "So where are they all?" I asked, looking round and taking note that she only had paint and blank canvases occupying this room.

"They're next door." She dropped her brush in a pot and grabbed my hand, pulling me to a small screen across a doorway.

As I walked in the first thing I noticed was the number of paintings occupying the small room. There must have been close to a hundred, some hanging on the walls, some on screens like the one covering the door even in stacks occupying the floor.

"Oh, wow honey. You've done... a lot."

"Yeah, it relaxes me, and I need a lot of relaxing, especially as Sam is doing his doing his own thing." She looked rounds quite contentedly, then proceeds to pulling me over and describing each painting, what it is, what it means, and why she likes it or doesn't.

At the end of it she asked which one I liked the best and I said the one she had painted of the meadow. This light caught all the different coloured plants in full bloom and the lush trees surrounding and the small stream running through one end.

After talking to her for a bit longer, I left and went back to Edward's and my room. I hung the painting up above the mantelpiece and sat down on the couch, smiling.

But as always, my memories leap up on me, this time leaving me gasping for air while I held back sobs. I always handled them better when Edward was around. Like I did during my conversation with Adam the week before, I wrapped my arms around my legs and just tried to focus on the painting.

The longer I stared at it, the more I seemed to notice a faint pattern in the background, just a minute shade, which only a vampire looking as I did now, could tell.

I stood up and moved closer to it, tracing the pattern with my finger, then gasped as I realised that it was just a more detailed version of the tattoo. I sped out my room and back towards Kaiya's gallery. As soon as I walked into the room, that symbol was all I saw, in every single painting.

Then it clicked. The infinity figure engraved with the unique mixture of Arabic and Latin.

I rushed back out, past a confused Kaiya and ran at top speed to Aro's quarters.

"Ah Bella, just in time." Aro smiled and gestured for me to sit down in one of the plush sofas. I blinked then remembered that he had asked me to come see him... now.

"Oh yes." I sat down, my mind still reeling.

"Are you quite alright Bella?"

"Confused and shocked and annoyed amongst other emotions."

"Over what?" He asked, looking concerned.

"Joham, it doesn't make sense..." I rested my head in my hands. "Have you ever met him?"

"Actually this is why I asked to talk to you."

I looked up, confused, but he held up a finger.

"Please be quiet until I've finished. I'm literally telling you only what you need to know. Now I have met Joham before and I knew him for a long time. I have been a vampire for just over three and a half thousand years, and Joham was a vampire turned with me, Marcus and Caius were turned two or three hundred years after.

"Now, about a hundred years after we were changed, Joham came up with an idea to overtake the current rulers, Vladimir and Stefan, they had gotten too idle. I blindly agreed. It took almost 300 years to gain others trust, along the way we picked up Marcus and Caius, I was very good friends with them but Joham didn't like them very much. Joham and I took rule three thousand two hundred years ago, but shortly after this he began to do subtle things, things Marcus and Caius picked up on but I wouldn't listen. I was only when I walked in on Joham commanding others to kill them. I protested of course, but them he made me choose, him or them.

"Regrettably I chose him, but under the condition the two of them were not to be killed but sent away, at least they would have been away from him then. But he got so incredibly power hungry after that, we both had been slightly, but it was ridiculous, if anyone said no to him, he'd have them executed along with anyone associated with them.

"While Vladimir and Stefan were ruling, there were nigh on two thousand vampires, but after two hundred years of our rule the figure was closer to seven hundred. It was only when he announced to me his plan to prove to the human world that vampires existed. Of course there were some rumours and beliefs, but nothing concrete. This was when I finally said no. He didn't like it very much but refused to kill me.

"I quickly wrote to Marcus asking him to bring everyone he could, we need to get rid of Joham, and I couldn't kill him myself.

"So they did come, with almost every other vampire, and Joham fled, so the Volturi were created. Since then we have always kept an eye on him. Marcus and Caius constantly trying to convince me to have him killed, but I couldn't. That's why you were always there just too late, because I sent you there too late to catch him.

"There is a reason I just couldn't bear to have him killed. It's because-"

"He's your brother." I finished. He looked at me incredibly shocked. "When I was full up of the venom, I think I saw him, he resembled someone I knew, and when you told me that you were changed with him, I put two and two together."

"You don't miss a trick do you?"

"Never. But why are you telling me this?"

"So you understand more than anything, I might change my mind and decide not to kill him. So, after talking with my co-rulers, we have decided you will take my vote in anything. You are fair but still determined; also you are the only one who won't be affected by him. It seems he might have an ability to draw people to him, but I'm not entirely sure, so it's best to be safe."

"Thank you." I nodded and smiled, but then my original reason for coming here was remembered. "Is there nothing else about him you haven't told me?"

"Nothing of importance, why?"

"Not that he is a branded vampire hunter?"

He grimaced.

"_Was_. We both were as humans, but he decided it appropriate to say he was the vampire, vampire hunter. 'Ridding the scum' was how he put it."

"I'm guessing a certain friend of ours doesn't know...?"

"Not that I know of, but hopefully she won't. Also I ask that you don't speak of this to anyone."

**sHssHs**

_The vampire hunters originated from an old family shortly after the time vampires were created. They learnt a vampire could be killed by either coating a blade in werewolf saliva and cutting them to pieces or burning them. _

_The hunters, or _Venantium_, pass their secrets through their children and they are virtually impossible to identify, but as a symbol of their unity they each carry a symbol, whether a tattoo or a piece of jewellery. This also enable s them to recognise each other._

_This symbol is the figure of eight with intricate writing decorating it; this is usually engraved on gold if it is worn as jewellery. The writing has not ever been fully identified, but parts of the translation include, 'fire save me', 'lord protect me', 'Venantium', and 'destroy those of death'._

_In the hunter genocide of the fifteenth century, it was believed that they were hunted to near extinction by vampires. But due to a rise in vampire deaths within the past few decades and the symbol being left at the scene, it is believed there are still many more._

"There you are. Kaiya said you looked upset before." I snapped my book shut as Edward entered the library.

"Just a weird sense of déjà vu." I shrugged pecking him on the lips.

"Those paintings are amazingly lifelike."

"She is a very talented girl." I smiled.

Edward took the book off me and began to flick through it.

"'_Those threatening to vampires'_, well you are enjoying happy books." He carried on flicking through until he got to the page that I had just been reading, and stared at the picture of the _Venantium_ symbol. "That looks familiar." But then he just shrugged and carried on flicking through the rest of the book.

**sHssHs**

"Yes, I am back." I laughed as I heard groans when I walked into the training room. "Now, today we are trying something different. We are going to sort everyone into two teams then fight, but no powers are allowed. If you use your ability, then there is a penalty. You have three lives, when those lives have expired you have to jump up to the balcony. For the first round Jane, Alec, Quentin and Eleazar are refereeing."

Quickly everyone was randomly sorted into teams; one team wore black cloaks, the other grey.

Out of the three hundred in the training room, two hundred managed to survive the first five minutes. After fifteen minutes, there were only twenty left, six of those, including me, were on my team.

I managed to 'kill' five more in three minutes, by getting my teammates to distract them. By this point five of the final nine decided to team up against me, leaving the other four to match up with my teammates. It was rather fun, I admit that I may have teased them a bit, but I eventually 'killed' them, leaving only Annabelle and I, circling each other.

"Long time no see." She hissed.

"Annabelle, will you quit the 'you betrayed me' act?" I swung my arm at her but she ducked under it and tried to get behind me. I flipped out of the way and we carried on our circling.

"How's the father?" She sneered.

"You know perfectly well I haven't seen him."

We dived for each other once again but kept slipping out of each other's grasp.

"How is your father?"

Her face lost its hateful mask for a second, but it was so quick that I questioned my imagination.

"You know perfectly well he died."

I smirked.

"You're perfectly sure?" Once again she slipped out of my grip.

"What are you implying?"

_What _was_ I implying?_

"Nothing, of course." I flashed her a grin. "Find the group who killed Danny?"

Suddenly her face changed, it morphed into something I'm still uneasy to describe. Then before I knew it I was pressed against the wall. Her teeth inches from my neck.

"Isabella Swan, you are a hateful vampire. I will make your life a misery if you carry on. Maybe your family's too."

I threw her off me, sending her flying, and then threw myself on top of her, pinning her down.

"You just try." I hissed.

She threw me off, but I landed upright and dodged out her way as she ran at me, grabbed her ankle and threw her through the wooden door into the corridor.

She got up and ran full speed at me, and me at her, barely noticing the commanding voice in the background.

We crashed into each other, trying to rip limbs off. I managed to get a hand, and her my left thumb before someone grabbed both of us and pulled us apart while we screamed things at each other.

Aro suddenly stepped into my red tinted vision.

"Who on earth let those two fight?" He looked around angrily at the Volturi gathered around. "You all know they don't get along! Annabelle quit screeching and Bella will you please stop with the growling!" He sighed and pressed a hand to his forehead. "If they let you go, will you promise to behave?"

I didn't say anything and neither did she, but for some reason they let us go. We both glared at each other.

"What happened?"

I just kept staring at her, I was not going to look away.

"Am I talking to myself here?" He sighed. "Get out of my sight the both of you." He waved a hand and we were both escorted out, forcing to break eye contact when we went opposite ways down the corridor.

They took me to my room, my family filing in after me.

Alice handed me my missing thumb and I swiftly reattached it, hissing slightly at the stinging.

"Well that was interesting." Emmett chuckled awkwardly.

"What did she say that made you so crazy?" Joanne asked, sitting next to me.

I just sat, staring ahead. I was still fuming at the mousey haired vampire.

"You are not doing the ignoring thing to me." She shook my arm.

"Erm Joanne, she's still angry so I would quit it for a bit unless you want your throat ripped out." Adam warned.

She huffed but left me alone. Edward crouched in front of me looking at my face intently.

"Bella. Calm down will you please? The jaw grinding isn't the nicest."

I glared at him and stood up moving to the window so no-one could stand in my eye line.

"Just leave her be until she calms down." Adam said. I heard him sit down.

They then began a conversation in the background about the 'game', saying what new moves they learnt.

I just kept looking out the window, surveying the town below. It was reaching the time of night where everyone was turning their lights off and heading to bed, except for those who were enjoying some kind of sporting event on the TV in the pub.

It was quite calming watching the town during the night. I withdrew my attention from the room behind me and absorbed myself in the humans below, the arguments, the lone husband weaving his way home, young girls talking about guys in their school until four in the morning.

I was so absorbed in what was happening below, I jumped when someone touched my arm.

I looked around noticing everyone was still assembled around the room but in different positions, also that it was dawn.

"Are you ok?" Edward asked, looking concerned.

"Yes." I reflexively moved my thumb, noticing it was completely healed.

"Are you going to-" Joanne began until Adam elbowed her in the side.

"I need to find Aro." I turned around and left, giving Edward a peck on the cheek as I passed.

I weaved my way through the stone corridors glowing brightly in the returning sunlight, until I reached my destination

"Enter."

I opened the door and entered, bowing respectfully to my three leaders.

"Bella, I trust you have calmed down since last night?"

"Yes. I have come to apologise for my actions yesterday, I feel I have disgraced the Volturi."

"Hm." Caius narrowed his eyes sceptically.

"Bella dear, I will not lie, you did disgrace us... but you certainly taught the others something, they were all practising those moves for the rest of the moonlight." Marcus smiled.

"Besides the rest of the Volturi know perfectly well they are not to allow you two to fight. They thought that they would finally like to see who the best was." Aro shook his head disapprovingly.

"So, for the reason that we would like to keep the both of you alive, you will be leading the 6 AM to midday then the 6PM until midnight sessions and Annabelle the alternative two." Caius said.

"Thank you-" I was cut off by the door slamming open.

All of us turned around to find the source and saw Joanne speeding in, followed by my family and the Cullen's. She looked crazy.

I ran over to her and grabbed her face.

"Joanne? What's wrong? Joanne!" I shook her trying to get her attention, but she fell to her knees with a cry.

"What is wrong?" Aro asked Carlisle while I tried to comfort my vampire daughter.

"Alice just had a vision." Carlisle said, looking unnerved.

Aro held out his hand towards the vampire in question, and she swiftly complied.

I kept murmuring things to Joanne, still holding her face, but my real attention was on what was happening to my left.

"What is going on?" I asked.

I looked at Edward questioningly, but he just looked at me sadly.

"Oh." Aro took a step back and turned away. Only I could see his face properly and it looked incredibly unhappy.

"_What_?" I asked again, becoming incredibly worried now.

"It's Joham. He's decided that exactly one week today, he is going to massacre Forks. Also that no-one is getting out alive." Alice told me.

"Well we'll just go and stop him!" I looked around hopefully.

"He's taken Rob." Joanne gasped.

"What?" I asked, disbelieving. "How could he have known?"

"This is also the bad part. It seems he has someone in the Volturi. Alice saw someone talking about it, but couldn't see their face." Carlisle said.

Caius, Marcus and I looked at each other, all thinking the same thing.

Suddenly Aro came to his senses.

"Send the message; we are leaving in four days. Until then, there is compulsory training all day and night." Then looking paler than usual, he fled the room.

* * *

**I'm forcing myself to try and finish it off now, so I'm trying my best, my target is between 4 and 7 more chapters.**

**WARNING: due to upcoming exams, updates are unlikely until the end of May (I know this excuse is a bit worn out with me ) so keep me on the updates list and I will add another chapter when I can.**


	34. Fights

**I hope everyone's been well and nothing terrible has happened! Due to my once again lateness, I will be posting this chapter today and the next on Friday :) **

**Thanks:**

**CharlieT5 | Spick-Jasper-Baldock | sapphire's pen | EdwardHisTopazEyes | Roei's Pink Love | DarkSkyLilly91 | **Team Everything2 **| Fox7368 | SCREAMM | ringgold913 | Doddlauren39 | KaySollace | xxRhosalynxx | Socajam | LovelessxWorld | sportytc | BellaMarieSwanCullen97 | **Twilightluver3 **| catalysand | Gabriella Edmond | Correlle-bw | BridieMar | Viper-Rose2011 | fanfi98 |**

* * *

**BPOV**

I haven't seen much of anyone over the past few days. Annabelle and I led training in different rooms every hour of the day, only allowed twenty minutes out each day to calm down or feed.

Seeing how much effort and improvement there was in the vampires here, was giving me hope that we had a chance of winning. The only problem was that we were still unsure of Joham's numbers, he has had 3,000 years to create his children, but we don't know if they age.

I've spoken with Caius and Marcus many times when they've been in training themselves, even 3,000 year old vampires can get a bit rusty. Caius finally seems to be warming to me, he doesn't look like he is plotting my demise whenever we talk, and Marcus appears to be getting some determination as opposed to his usual lifelessness. But no-one has seen Aro in training and he refuses to see anyone. Caius explained that it's out of guilt and shame, he knows he should have killed his brother, and he knows his brother must be killed also he thinks this fight is because of him. Not that Caius was arguing against it.

Eventually, most of the vampires boarded a plane, and were on their way, leaving thirty of us behind as Quentin is going to teleport us to Forks so we can find a safe spot. Everyone in my family but Alice, Edward, Valerie and Lorrie had gone on the plane, as only those with the most useful abilities are teleporting... no-one knows what is going to be there.

So, 3 hours before the plane was due to land, we gathered in the Sun room, everyone in their respective cloaks; we all thought it appropriate to issue everyone with a cloak so we knew who was on whose side.

On cue, we all held hands, I spread my shields over everyone and before I knew it, I could smell the familiar scent of pine needles, moss and rain, but also a singed smell. I opened my eyes and I realised we were stood in front of my house... technically.

Everyone had told me that they just had to abandon it in flames, as the priority was to get out of there, but I still wasn't prepared for what was in its place. Three crumbled walls and blackened wood. Even Kaiya's shed had burnt down.

I blinked and walked slightly towards it, hearing Quentin's apology in the back of my mind but I was looking around, trying to see if anything had survived. I slowly walked around, only finding bits of twisted metal which once belonged to various parts of furniture.

I was relieved that sentimental things were taken to the Cullen's, but it was still difficult to stand in the ruins of a place which I had called a home.

"We may as well go to our place; everyone else knows where it is." Alice said in the background. Everyone began to move, crunching the grass and moving slowly towards the trees, except for one pair of feet which walked towards me gingerly across the ash.

"Come on mom, we need to make sure it's safe for the others." My youngest son said, laying a hand on my shoulder.

I stood up and sighed, brushing myself off, and followed the others, pulling Lorrie along with me.

"Are you okay?" I asked him once we were out of sight.

"Sort of, in a way it was just one of our houses, but there are still the memories... I guess it's good vampires don't forget things." He smiled wryly.

"I guess so." I mused.

"Are you worried?" He burst out suddenly. I looked at him, and for what must be the second time in my life, I saw fear in his eyes. I pulled us to a stop, we were only a quarter of a mile away from the house so there wasn't much of a threat, and looked at him assessing whether to tell him the truth or not.

"Yes. We _may_ have a chance, but honestly... I don't know." I sighed. "If I could, I would try to prevent this but we will all be hunted down regardless, that's the reason I'm not forbidding you all to fight. In my opinion, fighting or running are as bad as each other, but only one of them has a opportunity of winning."

"We would fight anyway, even if it was only the seven of us outnumbered ten-to-one."

"I know, doesn't make me like it any better." I laughed.

"That doesn't matter, if we go down we go down together." He said determinedly.

"Well don't sign your death certificate so soon, there's still hope for us yet."

"Optimism isn't your speciality, mom." He grinned.

"Too right, that's best left to Kaiya and you." I grinned back as we entered onto the Cullen's lawn.

"Isabella! We do have a time limit you know!" Caius barked from where he was _leaning_ on the porch.

"Yes master." I said respectfully, I don't think he heard the various profanities I muttered under my breath.

Within twenty minutes those of us in the Volturi had managed to scout the area, and sure enough there was nothing.

So all there was to do was wait.

**sHssHs**

"I dare you to... strip down into your underwear, roll around in the mud and call Marcus out with 'I have something I want to show you', then show him what men are made of." Jane said to Felix, a gleeful grin spread across her face... We all knew what she meant.

He growled and sighed then proceeded to strip, all of us egging him on with wolf whistling, slightly intoxicated with blood laced with pure vodka.

The rest of us followed him outside, and hid in the tree-line around the front of the house, most holding cameras.

I stood next to Jane behind a huge tree trunk.

"I thought all the good ideas had been used up by now."

"Thank god they haven't." She laughed under her breath, and as Marcus walked out the house, Felix pulled his underpants down. I will never _ever_ forget Marcus' horrified face.

All the the Volturi hidden burst into a huge bout of laughter as many of the others who were camped around the back or who were lounging about the house came out and saw Felix's manhood. Felix, of course, quickly pulled his pants back up and ran as fast as he could into the house.

Edward, who had just returned from duty just shook his head at my giggling.

"Please tell me that was your idea."

"Sorry, but nope. T'was Janey here." I slapped Jane on her shoulder, as I did I gelt an attack on my shield from her. "If my shield wasn't up then someone would be in trouble!" I pointed my finger at her.

"It was a knee jerk reaction! You are such a fool."

"Me? Fool? You must be mistaking me with my youngest daughter."

"Whatever, you're all fools!" She stuck her tongue out at me and skipped off singing an old tune from presumably her human years.

"Evening my fiancé. Is it evening or morning?" I looked at the moon. "Why isn't the moon purple? It would look so much more awesome purple."

"Are you drunk?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Nope! More of a little bit free...less restrained." I grinned.

"I never knew vampires could get drunk."

"They can't get drunk! They can get 'tipsy', someone in the Volturi... Jeremy! Found that if the alcohol is in the blood vampires can absorb bits of it. He drank an alcoholic once. And before you worry it wasn't human! Look!" I put my face right up to his, proving my eyes were still gold.

"I believe you!" He said looking amused. "How long does this take to wear off?"

"I haven't drunken any for about twenty minutes and I didn't have too much, so about an hour."

"In time for your watch then." He smirked and towed me towards the house.

"I would still be able to fight like this! Give me some credit!"

"No need to shout. Come on." He carried me upstairs while I talked about whether other mythical creatures could be real and sat me down on his sofa.

"I see how it is, you are ashamed of your alcoholic vampire future wife." I fake sniffled.

"I wouldn't say alcoholic."

"I didn't say that, you did! Hang on, you're ashamed?" I pretended to weep. A Oscar for me I think.

"Bella." He sighed. "You are a terrible actress." My Oscar dreams are ruined then.

"You know, I can be a good actress when I want to be."

"I can't say that I'm entirely convinced." He gave his signature smile.

"Were all your hopes and dreams ruined when you became a vampire?"

"What? Serious or not?"

"I think it's a very serious subject!" I rolled my eyes.

"Okay... no?"

"Sound so unsure why don't you! But right answer." I grinned.

"You're mental."

"Is that a medical diagnosis, doctor?"

"I rest my case."

"What case? You're not carrying one."

He stared at me incredulously, but I smirked.

"You are a nightmare with alcohol in your system." He sighed and went to the closet.

"I'm just stating fact! Besides this is _me_, the Volturi toughened me up." I sighed, wondering what I would be doing now if I never joined the Volturi.

"You aren't so tough when you're with your family." Edward said, pulling a clean jumper over his head.

"Still not me! I always have to keep at least half of myself on alert at all times, never relaxing... ugh my life sounds so... depressing."

"You do what you can to protect your family." He sat next to me.

"Doesn't stop me leaving them though. You know, when I was human, I would never have dreamed of hurting anyone, yeah I wanted James out of the picture in case he hurt anyone, but even if I was a vampire I wouldn't have dreamed of killing him. Now, I really enjoy the thrill of the chase and the kill. That makes me a monster."

"The fact you care is the thing that doesn't make you a monster, you do it to protect your family and humans, you don't kill specifically for the fun, if you see a new vampire you don't immediately hunt them, you might if they were a threat, it's not who you are. The majority of the time I would bet if you could find a way out of killing you could."

"There is always a way out of killing if you look hard enough."

"So you believe there will be a way out of all of this without killing anyone?" He asked.

"Of course not, but they will be a way out without killing everyone."

"Well I do hope you're right."

**sHssHs**

"I'll be back in a few minutes, I need to see some wolves." I told my partner as I finished duty.

"I don't think that's a good idea..." Luke said.

"It'll be fine, I'll be back soon!" I ran for it before he could try to stop me.

I ran towards the wolf border, but before I reached the boundary, a huge honey yellow wolf leaped out of the bushes and went to pounce on me.

"Wait! I'm a Swan!" I shouted, trying to prevent any bloodshed.

Thankfully the wolf stood down, but growled every time I moved. Soon enough, Jake jogged through the trees towards me.

"Long time no see."

"Sorry, they attacked and we had to get out of there quickly."

"We saw. The house was on fire so we went to help and saw Alice, she told us you'd been hurt." He looked me over, maybe a flicker of worry in his eyes?

"I was, but I'm fine now, I came to talk to you about the others. They're going to massacre Forks."

The wolf growled violently and Jake looked pretty angry.

"Is this because of you lot?"

"It's a crazy vampire who is going to tell the world about vampires, Forks is where he's going to start."

"Was it him who took that boy in Forks? They all assume he went missing but we went and found a strange scent, a bit like yours, but not."

"Yes, he is my daughters mate."

"Wait, what? Again? So it is your family's fault they took him." He was looking angrier by the minute.

"If it makes you feel better, yes Jacob, it's all my fault! Now are you going to help or not?"

"We can protect Forks and La Push by ourselves thanks." The wolf behind him nodded in agreement.

"So when you lose, be aware it's your fault that the world becomes enslaved by a mentally unstable, power hungry vampire."

"We may make an alliance, but we will never fight a war on the side of the vampires."

I could see it in his face, he wasn't going to change his mind, and it was obvious he had thought about this.

"Years ago you would have helped."

"Both of us have changed a lot in seventy odd years Bells, I do want you all to win, but the protection of the pack and the humans come first." He said, there was a slight apology in his eyes.

"I guess I understand that." I sighed. "If you change your mind, two days, four miles north of town. Bye Jake."

"Good luck, if things go badly, we will do our best."

"I know."

I walked away, my hope almost gone, until I saw a figure step out of the foliage.

"Isabella Swan, we have agreed to help you, for the good of the humans." The one thing I noticed on his hand was the mark of the vampire hunters.


	35. Surprise

**As promised! The next one will hopefully be next weekend :) Sorry if this one gets a little confuzzling, I had to read some bits twice**

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* * *

**BPOV**

"No way."

"Not a chance."

"You are joking!"

"Why not?" Isobel shrugged, the leader of the Canberra 'camp'. "Sure, the vampire hunters aren't our friends, but if they're willing to work with us this one time, along with the fact that in the future they won't attack vampires if they have golden eyes or are a controlled newborn. It will mean we have a better chance of winning and less chance of being killed in the future."

I smiled at her from where I was stood in the centre of the room.

"Isobel has a point." Marcus spoke up over the racket that had reignited after Isobel's speech.

"You want to side with the hunters?" Caius turned on his brother.

"Yes, but if they hold up their end, we must hold up ours."

"I don't think _we _should decide." Aro murmured from the corner he was stood in. "If we make this deal, the majority must uphold the deal. We should put it to everyone."

"And quickly, they've given us two hours to decide, or they're working solely with the wolves and any survivors will be killed." I pointed out.

"Okay, Demetri, John, Mickael, Penelope and Jessica, go round up everyone at the front of the house." Aro instructed.

The five of them nodded and left.

"So what will happen after the decision?"

"I need to go and tell them the verdict so we can talk about strategy, I can take two others, there will only be three there, so fair's fair."

"I think Lawrence and Quentin should go. Lawrence knows our strategies best and Quentin can get them out of there if it goes wrong." Benjamin suggested, the leader of the Cairo 'camp'.

"Well we need to find out whether they are prepared to go." I pointed out.

"I think it's the most logical way, so I'll go." Quentin nodded. "We can ask Lawrence if everyone agrees." Everyone else nodded and left the room, all but the Volturi leaders and 'camp' leaders.

"Are you sure about this Bella?" Caius asked.

"Not entirely, but I have a gut instinct that they won't betray us." I said honestly.

"This is risky, we still don't know who the traitor is." Ben reminded us.

"I have already told you my suspicions and reasons." I reminded them.

"Oh and you have proof?" Caius glared.

"No, but isn't it obvious that they wouldn't make it easy for us to spot them? They could have been among us for years, maybe Aro wasn't the reason we always arrived too late." Isobel backed me up.

"Well I think that the line of strategy with the hunters should be kept between us, Lawrence and Quentin. The fewer the better."

"We all have our suspicions right? How about we give each of them a different aspect of what is going to happen, then if that happens, we know who he traitor is, hopefully before they recognise themselves." I said. They all agreed and we came up with our statements and exited the room.

"We have called everyone here as we have been given a proposition which requires the vote of everyone. Isabella was approached so she will explain, after she has explained we call a vote, simply put your hands up when we say yes or no, a majority of seventy-five percent will decide." Aro announced to everyone gathered on the lawn, then stepped back and ushered me forwards.

"Some of you may be familiar with the group _Venantium_, some of you may not," those who knew began murmuring to each other, and that wasn't many, "and for those of you who don't, they are a very old group who are more commonly known as 'vampire hunters'. Before you judge, one came to me today and said that they will fight with us on the condition we stop attacking them and, in exchange, they will also not kill any of the 'vegetarian' vampires or newborns who are being vouched for by these 'vegetarians', as long as they aren't out of control.

"Now I know that some of you are still very much human drinkers, but many are either converting or are 'vegetarian'. If this is the price that we have to pay to have a better chance at winning this, then an effort should be made.

"It has been agreed that if we say no, they will not help us, and kill those who run away, at this point they will also have shape shifters on their side, so if any of you are thinking of running, it would be useless.

"If we say yes, then they will fight alongside us and have all vowed to not attack us at that point or afterwards unless they are attacked themselves. We must insist this to be the same, and if one of ours attacks them without provocation, we will _not_ help them.

"This deal is fair on both parts so I will give you a few minutes to decide, but there is a time limit on our reply. Choose wisely."

I stepped back next to the leaders and waited, watching the large group of vampires talking to their mates or family.

I caught Edward's eye in the crowd, and lifted my shield and just thought two words, _trust me_, he nodded and turned back to his family.

"We must vote too. They will be influenced by our decisions." Marcus muttered.

After a few more minutes, Aro gestured for us all to walk forward.

"Those against." About seventy raised their hands, out of them, only three in the Volturi, surprisingly not Caius.

"Those for." About a hundred and fifty. That still left a hundred to vote.

"Don't trust the vampire hunters! They killed my mate when he was only a newborn without giving him any mercy!" Annabelle suddenly screeched. Great she was back.

"Annabelle! What happened was unfortunate, we have killed many of them without giving them a chance! We tried to kill every last one a couple of centuries ago." I shouted back at her.

"You hated them too. You once agreed to wipe them out with me."

Murmurs came from those who had said yes before, wondering if their decision was right.

"Yes, then I realised what a stupid idea it was. They had done nothing to me, all I heard was stories, mainly off you."

"They were all true!" She was getting angry again, and began weaving her way through the crowd.

"All first hand were they? That was the collective decision of each one of them and not one individual?"

"Probably! They cannot be trusted!"

"I don't sense any danger from them." Isobel spoke up.

"Think about what you are about to do! Siding with the enemy!"

"No we are becoming allies as we have a common enemy, their enemy is those who cause harm to humans." I said just as calmly as Isobel, I was realising that we were gaining more trust as we weren't acting crazy.

"Once again, those against." Caius asked, only a handful raised their hands.

"For." Marcus repeated. All of the rest of the hands were raised.

"I can guarantee, when this all goes horribly wrong, you all know who to blame!" She glared at me but then ran off. Things are never simple.

"So you know the conditions, stick to them. We would like to keep this alliance beyond this. If you decide not to change your diet, that is perfectly fine, but you won't be protected from the hunters, so it will be how it was." Aro nodded. "Everyone, please return to your duties but Isabella, Quentin and Lawrence."

"Go and meet them, we will expect you back in, at the most, eight hours. That should give you enough time to sort everything out, if you need longer, let us know." Quentin and I bowed and Lorrie nodded.

"Bella," Edward called just before I entered the trees, I told the other two to go ahead and I turned to talk to him, "Just wanted to tell you to be careful."

"I'm always careful." I smiled and hugged him tightly.

"Please be back in a couple of hours, I don't want to be on duty when you get back."

"I'll try my best. I love you."

"I know." He grinned and then I left him, quickly catching up with the others.

"Where are we meeting them?" Quentin asked.

"Some old cottage a few miles away, they gave me the coordinates."

"May as well not waste any time." He shrugged.

We stopped and I grabbed his hand, Lawrence, his other wrist and in a fraction of a second, we were facing a little cottage. It looked lovely.

"Bella! Glad you came. I hope it wasn't too difficult." My art teacher smiled as he opened the door.

"There certainly was a debate involved."

"I'm not surprised, it took us all three weeks to agree. Anyway, come in!"

The three of us entered and the other two vampire hunters looked at us suspiciously, I tried to give a small smile to them, it was nice enough that they agreed to help us in the first place.

"There is something you must know, what is said here must be kept very quiet as we have a traitor on our side, Quentin and Lawrence are some of the few we believe above all to not be the traitor, I have instructions that if possible, everyone is to be told as little as possible, but I understand if you want to tell who you want."

"Well, that's worrying." Mr Holm said, taking his glasses off and wiping them on his coat. "But we appreciate the warning. Where should we start?"

"Firstly, what are your numbers?"

**sHssHs**

"Hey Alice, where is Edward?" I asked the tiny vampire who was stood in the front garden, looking harassed.

"Bella! Come with me!" She leapt directly upwards, and through the window into her bathroom.

"What?" I followed her, confused.

"Edward has a surprise for you! Now put this blindfold on or I will have Alec come in and cut your senses, and believe me, I will find a way."

"Okay!" I grumbled while I put the thick blindfold on and was lowered into a chair.

My hair and make up was done, eyes tightly closed then I was dressed in some fairly heavy but soft material, with Alice tutting and murmuring in the background.

"Alice," I warned getting impatient, "wha-"

"Hold still!" She commanded and slid something heavy into my hair. "Perfect!"

After that I was lead out into the hall, and down the staircase. When Adam moved up next to me, it suddenly dawned on me.

"Woah, no!" I suddenly panicked and opened my eyes, noticing everyone who I called family and friends were gathered around the room, a clear path in the centre, towards the glass wall of the Cullen house.

The wedding march began and Kaiya, Martiee, Joanne, Victoria and Valerie floated down the aisle, their hair simply hanging down with sapphire blue flowers clipped in to match their dresses.

Before I knew it, Adam was towing me down the aisle, while I was still quite dazed by the whole situation. I wanted to get married... but _me_?_ Married?_

Eventually I looked at Edward, and that was when all my worries left my mind and all I wanted to do was to run up the aisle, say yes and tie myself to him forever.

When we did get up there I did smack him. "That was for not telling me!" Then I kissed him. "But _that_ was for not telling me."

Edward looked very confused and Emmett laughed at him.

"Oh my brother, this is what you've got to look forward to." He guffawed while clapping him on the shoulder.

"More! This is the beginning, Bella's a handful!" One of my Volturi friends shouted.

"I would appreciate it if you all stopped trying to scare him off before he says 'I do', you can save it for later... when it's too late..." I grinned and turned to Tom, who, like at Adam and Valerie's wedding, was the minister.

He said all the necessary parts, we said 'I do', exchanged rings, thanks to Alice who apparently had been out that morning to pick them up, and kissed, which caused an explosion of cheering and wolf whistling then we became surrounded by friends and family.

"Sorry we didn't have it in Volterra Bella, but after Edward here came to us and asked if a ceremony could be done before all this, we couldn't say no! But I can assure you there will be a massively marvellous wedding at home after all this!" Aro exclaimed, quite gleefully as he hugged me and Marcus and Caius shook hands with Edward and offered their congratulations.

"Look at us! Less than a year ago we were being all sulky, thinking we'd be alone forever, and now look!" Adam bounded up to us with his arm around his wife's waist.

We hugged each other laughing, while Valerie and Edward gave each other a warm hug.

"How is she?" I whispered into his ear, knowing he would know who I was talking about.

"The same, but what do you expect? Her mate has been taken by some crazy vampire with the idea of ruling humans."

"I know... I should have been around more."

"She knows you're trying to help _everyone _get through this, and by helping win this, hopefully Rob will be safe. Besides, all of us have been there."

I sighed and pulled away as said vampire walked up.

"Congratulations mum." She said with a smile, genuine but pain was there.

"Come here." She came over and hugged my tightly. "Just promise me not to do anything silly. _I _will get him back, you just focus on keeping yourself alive. Okay?"

She nodded. "I know you will."

We were congratulated by everyone there, thankfully everyone agreed there would be no reception as it would be irresponsible. So it was a matter of having the opportunity to relax for an hour or so, especially as we only had twenty-odd hours until it was time to leave.

So by the end, Edward and I were in his room, still in our wedding outfits, just sat next to each other, comfortable in the others' company.

"Mrs Isabella Cullen. Hmm, I think I could live with it." I smiled.

"You can still keep the Swan name, there is still the 'Swan' coven."

"I married you so I should have your name."

"You don't fancy Mrs Isabella Cullen Swan? My name is still in there." He actually seemed to like the idea.

"Are you sure? You don't want Masen instead?"

"Masen was my human name, it connects be to my biological parents, but Carlisle and Esme are more of my parents now, Cullen is the vampire name. I met you as a Cullen."

"Fair point, my decision was completely influenced by your surname!" I rolled my eyes and laughed. "You're silly sometimes!"

Suddenly a knock came on the bedroom door, and Edward sighed and stood up, going into his closet. "It's for you."

I growled and threw the door open, is it too much to ask for ten minutes alone?

"What?"

"Sorry Bella, but we need to speak to you. Privately."

"My all means come in," The three leaders filed in as Edward walked out the closet, dressed in jeans and a navy jumper.

"Edward." Aro nodded. "I hate to be disrespectful in your own home, but could you leave? This is business where the fewer who know, the better."

He nodded and went to kiss me but I put a hand on his chest to stop him.

"Does he have to leave? We are married now."

"I understand your frustration Bella, but we don't involve our mates in our discussions, you are welcome to share everything with him afterwards, but for now, I'm sorry." Aro said quietly.

I opened my mouth to object but Edward interjected.

"It's okay, I'm sure they wouldn't interrupt for no reason. I'll go find Joanne and make sure she's okay."

I sighed and nodded, watching him leave, then wandered into the bathroom where some of my clothes were.

"So, what is so important?" I asked through the bathroom door while unlacing my dress.

"We've planted the information we need to, as has Benjamin and Isobel, we need to know if you have." Caius spoke.

"Yes, I think it's just a waiting game now."

"Not too long. We're going to start leaving in three hours. Between Alice and Isobel, be believe he will be coming at sunset tomorrow." Marcus added.

"Is it still your group, then Isobel's, then Benjamin's and then mine?"

"Certainly is. Are you still obliging to take my position if needed?"

I opened the door, stood in my skinny jeans and tank top. "Well, I am... but are you absolutely sure?"

"We are _all_ agreed that you are the one we all trust to make the right decision. So yes."

"Okay then. Is that all?"

"Almost..."

* * *

**Wedding dress is on my profile. Edwards POV next.  
**


	36. Preparations

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* * *

**Edward POV**

"What's going on?" My sister asked.

"Aro, Marcus and Caius need to talk to Bella. Alone." I told Rosalie.

"Ouch man. Only just married as well." Emmett said, sympathetically.

"His emotions just went all gooey... Alice honey!" Jasper suddenly ran to the kitchen to vent some of my radiated emotions on his wife.

"I can't believe we're finally married." I grinned so much my cheeks almost began to hurt.

"You look downright scary." Lorrie laughed, just entering.

"Don't be so mean. Congratulations again." Martiee smiled after rolling her eyes at her mate.

Jack suddenly popped into the corner of my eye, and guessing his actions, I had enough time to duck before he could grab me in an Emmett-like hug.

"Damn mind reader! I thought I was getting good at this!"

"You are, your excitement let it slip for a second." I laughed when his face lit up.

"Hell yeah!" He began punching the air in triumph. "Beat that Emmett!"

"That is _not _fair. I live with you for practically my entire vampire life, trying to shield my thoughts, and in less than a year of being around you every now and then, he almost gets it!" He then rugby tackled Jack to the ground, leaving a noticeable dent in the floor.

"Boys! What have I told you about fighting in the house!" Esme shouted, suddenly standing over them, with her hands on her hips.

"Sorry mom." Emmett sighed.

"Sorry Esme." Jack too, sighed.

"Just don't do it again. We have guests and I don't want them thinking we are savages." She looked at them sternly once more, then smiled slightly before she drifted off to her study.

I grinned and went to the kitchen to grab some animal blood.

"It would be so much nicer if we could just hunt." Adam groaned from where he was sat on the kitchen side, with a glass off said substance.

"Carlisle said it would diminish the population too much." I shrugged.

"I know what Carlisle said." He rolled his eyes along with his right shoulder.

"Adam, don't bottle it all up for the fight, it will make it worse and more dangerous for everyone else. If you lose it, you might hurt one of us and we'll lose man-power stopping you."

"No need to worry there. Bella has already decided I can't fight, I have to wait on the sidelines with some of the other vampires, as I'm 'unstable'." He threw his drained glass in the sink. "I'm going for a run." He half growled and ran off. I sighed, from what I heard about Adam before the attack from his family, he seemed one of the most calm and kind-hearted people in the family, even more so than Kaiya. He was almost like a father figure to them.

"You okay Edward?" Anna suddenly asked, standing right in front of me. She seems to be the only person who can sneak up on me.

"Yes. I was just thinking about something."

"Need some thinking juice?" She held up a glass of blood much like the one Adam was just drinking.

"Why not?" We clinked glasses and took a gulp.

"Oh I have some here for Isabella. Human and animal, it's up to her. She's the one we're relying on most. Her being co-leader now and all." She hissed.

"She is?" I asked, confused, she never mentioned this.

"Oh, I thought she had told you. The Volturi all know." She shrugged. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." I shook it off, she always has good reasons for everything she does. I randomly looked towards the stairs and saw the three Volturi leaders descending. "Well I better go and see her. Nice talking to you." I smiled and she smiled back charmingly, I don't quite understand why Bella doesn't like her, but I guess it was between the two of them.

"Hang on," she grabbed two glasses from the unit behind her. "Don't forget the blood." She handed me the glasses. "If she she doesn't want them, just tip them down the sink."

"Thanks Anna." I went upstairs finding Bella sat on the black leather couch with her hands in her hair. "Hey love, are you okay?"

She looked up and blinked in surprise. "Oh. Yes. Just thinking."

"Want to share?" I asked, sitting next to her.

"I'd love to, but I think it would be best if I didn't."

"You always do what's best." I kissed her on the forehead. "Here. Human or Animal?" I asked, indicating each glass.

"I'll go for both. Just this once." She looked at me hesitantly.

"I didn't offer you both so I could say you couldn't have them once you decided." I laughed.

"Thanks hun." She first took the animal and drained it, then took the human and sipped it gently. "I need to talk to Joanne and Martiee." She suddenly said, finishing her glass.

"Okay then." I pulled her up and we went to Alice's room. I could hear our families talking in there. Bella popped her head round the door.

"Hey, Joanne and Martiee, can I talk to you for a minute please?"

The two vampires followed Bella and I quietly downstairs to the utility room, which was basically the only unoccupied room, and closed the door.

"What's this about Aunt Bella?" Martiee asked.

"I'll bet you two know about Adam not being allowed on the front line, and I know you may not like it, but you two can't either."

Both of them exploded in protests, screaming at Bella about how unfair it was, and how she couldn't decide for them. Eventually she held her hand up and they stopped, still looking annoyed.

"If you listen, I'll tell you why. Martiee, Lorrie tells me, you have very little, if any, experience at fighting, I understand you have gotten better, and you are not the worst. But those aren't on the front lines either. I have thought about it and I think it'll be either if you're exempt from the main fight, as it will prevent Lorrie getting distracted. Also Joanne, are you going to honestly tell me you will keep a level head in this?"

Joanne looked at her mom for a while and eventually shook her head. "No I can't. I would do anything to get him back."

"Exactly, which is the main reason why you can't fight either. Also, Adam knows you, and if he loses it, you'll be able to calm him down before he causes too much damage."

She nodded. "Okay. Just don't let anything happen to him." She paused in thought for a second. "I'll stay as long as you stop Jack fighting too. I wouldn't be able to handle it if I lost Rob and my brother."

Bella looked at her questioningly, then nodded. "I'll try, but you know he's become attached to someone too."

"Yes, Tanya is a good fighter, she'll be able to defend herself enough. I don't want to punish him, I just want him safe."

Bella looked at me and her shield shifted slightly and I heard her ask me what I thought. I hoped she was listening to me as I tried to answer her with my thoughts.

_It would be best to try, if they manage to get past us then it's likely they'll die too. Another vampire down shouldn't affect us too much, but we should have some plan in place so if it goes too badly, we can signal him to come in._

She nodded.

_He is all she has left at the moment, we don't even know if Rob's alive, we know Jack is. _She sighed.

"Okay I'll try. But you're moving out in ten minutes. So get ready."

She grabbed my hand and we left to go find Jack.

Surprisingly, Jack didn't put up too much of a fight when we told him Joanne wanted him there, he had as much of a desire to protect her as she did him.

"Thanks Jack. Get ready. You're leaving soon." He nodded and walked off.

"Well, that wasn't too hard." I said.

"Hmm," she said, suspiciously. "Exactly."

"Well you can't do anything about it now, the first group will be leaving in a few minutes. Just prepare yourself. I'm going to go find everyone and see if they're okay."

She nodded and followed me.

"I'll be a bit out of it as I'm trying to keep my shield on everyone. So sorry in advance."

"Just remember to text them when they're going too far." I said and knocked on Alice's door. A part of my mind was beginning to worry if Bella was up for all this.

Sam opened it, his arm wrapped around his wife, and gave us a tight smile, welcoming us in. As I suspected everyone was now there, before it was only a handful.

"Edward." My mom ran over and hugged me tightly. Bella went over to her family and spoke to them in a low but comforting voice, then hugging Jack and Joanne tightly before they left with Martiee and Lawrence. Lorrie was taking them down to the rest of the group where Quentin was taking them to the hunters for the fight.

"We'll be fine, regardless of what happens." I said to Esme as she began to sob lightly, trying to guess what she was thinking. I was secretly annoyed that Bella had to block mental abilities to keep her shield up, it make me feel naked, but it wasn't her fault really.

"I hope so." Carlisle said, looking calm, but from my years of knowing him, I could see the worry in his eyes, not that I blame him. He clapped his hand on my shoulder. "Just in case, I want you to know, I'm proud of you. Everything you've done has been for protection, whether your family or others." He then said something in Latin which I understood as _May the lord watch over your soul._

I hoped that, if I had one, he would.

Too quickly it was time to go, I grabbed my new wife's hand as we made our way downstairs, she was a little out of it, trying to concentrate, I could tell it was getting very difficult.

Too quickly everyone gathered, looking as nervous as I felt.

Too quickly the journey through the forest went, I barely had time to notice how Bella relaxed, the closer and closer we got.

Then we were there, gathering in a uniformed fashion. A thick wall of black.

Somehow I ended up next to Victoria. She kept shifting and I looked at her questioningly.

"My body is telling me to leave." She hissed slightly. I looked over to Isobel and saw she looked just as uneasy.

I moved forward a metre to whisper into my wife's ear about what conclusions I was beginning to draw.

She bit her lip and lifted her hand up to stroke my hair.

"We'll be fine," she murmured. I just kissed her and moved back. We both knew the probability of leaving this field alive, and it wasn't high.

Contrastingly, the field was in bloom, different colours of many wild flowers dotted the edge and the trees were a deep agate green, even as I was admiring the sight, a ray of light burst through the thick grey cloud, lighting the meadow up in the silver moonlight. I thought, _I wouldn't mind too much if here was the place I was going to die_.

Then the half breeds emerged from the trees, silent. There were so many. All they had to do was scratch us and we were down.

As row after row filed out of the trees, I somehow grew more confident. I knew we had a chance, and we would all use it.

* * *

**Still Edwards POV next chapter, and it will be the battle :) until next time...**


	37. Talks and Traitors

**Holiday! So, sorry but no update for three weeks. Hope this long chapter makes up for it.**

**Hope you all enjoy your holidays and the pictures of Joham and Robert are up on my profile.**

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**After receiving a PM asking whether there will be a sequel, I thought I would answer here in case anyone else was interested. Truly i'm not sure, I am going to try and leave it open so I could if I wanted to, but if I do it wouldn't be for a few months as I have other stories I should focus on. Thanks for reading my lengthy note and enjoy!**

* * *

**Edward POV**

The leader emerged silently from within the mass of bodies. He was about six foot five with jet black hair that he had combed slickly back, and his eyes were a bright ruby colour.

"Hello again." He shouted, opening his arms wide and walking forwards with determined strides.

I could see Aro's hands twitch, but his eyes stayed fixed on Joham. Weirdly, Marcus stepped forward rather than Aro.

"Joham. I can't say that any of us have missed you." He said with a hint of coldness in his voice, now of all times I wished I had my ability back so I could understand what was going on!

Joham stopped, close to the centre and beckoned us forward. "Why not have a chat like friends not enemies? I'm terribly sorry we got off on the wrong foot, but I'd love to have many of you with me."

"I'm sure you would, but none of us would like to be with you" Caius sneered, also stepping forward.

He looked across our lines with pursed lips. Then stopped at Bella.

"You're looking better today Isabella." He smiled a 'charming' smile, but Bella just stayed completely still and didn't reply.

"You're all just a bundle of laughs aren't you," he sighed. "Okay then, down to business. I am here, with my children, to show the humans who is boss, per così dire, and I would love it if you joined me, I need males to widen the gene pool and women to look after the newborns. All of you who have ever wanted children, and I am willing to bet there are some, _it is possible_. I would hate to have to kill you all." He shook his head sadly. "I have a suggestion, don't think as a group, think for yourself and what _you_ want to do. This is _your_ life in the balance, not someone who leads you or someone who you have only known for a month of so."

There was silence for a few moments then Aro spoke.

"That's a grand thing, saying all that... but how much is true? You can't control hundreds. How long would it be before you start killing people off so the numbers don't get too high, and I doubt that you would kill your 'children'."

Joham laughed. "It's true, I only keep the best, and the best know when a fight is lost, the best know when to join the winning side. And for your information I have killed the occasional one, the saying is 'you're only as strong as your weakest link'. Besides, I'm giving them a couple of years more than most of you will have."

I noticed out of the corner of my eye that some of the, ones I knew to have a big ego, were beginning to look thoughtful, some were even nodding their heads. Thankfully no-one moved. He was beginning to look irritated now.

So he turned his attention somewhere else.

"Isabella, my offer still stands if you want to join me."

She snorted delicately. "That is very unlikely to happen, you would literally have to enslave me... and then I would still say no."

"Would you like me to reenact the little scene I showed you, for real? I'm sure you'd give in then." His eyes twinkled in glee as she stiffened.

I reached forward and gently brushed her back with my hand, letting her know I was there. She relaxed slightly and then I moved back to my original position.

"Sorry it had to come to this." Joham said, and then at the flick of his fingers, Bella fell to the ground screaming in agony. The kind of agony that I have heard only when Jane has unleashed her ability at full blast... maybe even worse than that.

I fell to my knees next to her and tried to find any way to help her, but it was impossible, I wasn't sure she even noticed I was there.

The three leaders hissed and Benjamin shouted over the screams, "How? That's impossible!"

"Not impossible. We can't attack her from the outside, but what about the inside?"

Sure enough, in-between screams she began to retch, as if her body was trying to get rid of something.

"How do you mean?" Caius asked.

"Maybe a hair in a glass of blood of someone who has the ability to set themselves on fire?"

Something in my mind clicked, and before I knew what I was doing, I launched myself at the mousey haired vampire. At the same point, my mind-reading suddenly came back, freezing me in shock and enabling Annabelle to get a firm grip around my neck. Joham signaled again, and Bella's screams died down.

"I'm sure that hurt a fair bit, and I think her shields should be down now," he smiled.

"You're the traitor...?" Caius looked at Annabelle who was increasing pressure on my neck and I couldn't understand why she was stronger than me.

"Not the only one, but yes. I will serve my father above all." She said, almost reverently. "And Edward, it's true I gave you the blood, but I never directly put the hairs in, the Swan's need to look closer to home for that."

"Father? You're not a half-breed." Isobel said.

"I'm not like the others, I was one of his first 'grandchildren'. My father was a vampire who mated with my mother who was a half-breed. But _that _father isn't around, and my grandfather is as good as a father, so why not call him that title?"

I looked over at my wife who was simply lying on the floor, not even having the energy to breathe. I looked over at Sam, and he slowly walked over to her to see what he could do.

Suddenly there was a commotion from within the centre of the half-breeds, and thanks to my mind reading being back, I could make out why. But I couldn't say anything as the tight grip on my neck prevented my vocal cords from working in the slightest. I was beginning to get worried that if she carried on, she'd do permanent damage.

I also noticed that I couldn't hear an inkling from Joham's mind.

So, to concentrate even more, I decided to close my eyes and concentrate only on Annabelle's mind. I blocked everything else out and decided to bide my time, maybe even get some information while I was at it.

* * *

**BPOV**

I could tell my body was on fire. It _was _on fire, it wasn't some pain which was created in my head, there was literally a fire _inside_ me. Just burning away, not stopping.

It felt like centuries, but eventually it stopped.

Listening was the only thing I could do. I couldn't even try to think, it was too exhausting.

"Bella," A males low voice came suddenly from next to my ear. "Can you move at all?"

I couldn't process what he was even saying, it was like gibberish.

I heard the crunch of the grass as someone different lowered themselves next to me.

Then I was vaguely aware that something was entering my mouth, blood, but I didn't have enough energy to even swallow.

"Come on Bella." I heard someone urge from my opposite side.

My body tried to find some way of finding the energy to swallow, and after some uncountable amount of time, it must have found something, but that must have been the dregs of energy keeping me conscious, as I felt nothing after that.

* * *

**Edward POV**

Thankfully, I was so absorbed in Annabelle's thoughts, I could keep track of what was going on and look though her mind simultaneously.

I was aware Sam was with Bella, trying to do anything to get her to respond to the blood of her sire.

I was aware that Annabelle had dragged me further away from the mass of black cloaks, towards Joham, as she was feeling threatened having so many potential enemies surrounding her. She didn't seem to realise that I was in her head.

"So you lost your main defense... sorry about that, but now we can talk properly." He smiled, what seemed to be a genuine smile.

I, well Annabelle, could see some of those on the 'anti-Joham' side shift slightly, uncomfortable, but others seemed mesmerised by him. I remembered Bella told me a few weeks ago that the Volturi suspected that he had a gift of drawing people towards him, and without Bella's shield to stop it...

"So, as I am a generous man, I am going to give the offer once more, you are all still welcome." He opened his arms wide and a couple began to step forward, but others held them back.

To everyone's surprise, Aro stepped forward. Caius and Marcus went to stop him, but he waved them off.

"Why? After all these years, why are you still determined to be the leader? I admit the three of us," he gestured to himself and his brothers, "aren't much different, but after seeing how you act once again, it's wrong. I don't see the point." He looked like he was slightly in despair.

"Oh my little brother, you have always tried to be like me, but failed as you never really _felt _why I do what I do."

There were mutterings from amongst both sides, and looks were given between Aro and Joham. Now I understood why Aro has been withdrawn for so long, and why Bella was also chosen as a leader in the battle, she would be uninfluenced by Joham.

"Did you not tell those fighting for you that you're related to me?" He tutted. "Now now Alessandro, did madre not teach you anything?"

"Why would I want to admit you're my brother? Ever since that day 3000 years ago my loyalty to you has slowly diminished. Caius and Marcus helped to get rid of you at _my _request. I'm not entirely sure you even realise what you're doing at the present time."

"Shooting blindly in the dark. Of course I knew it was you, those two wouldn't have the guts to do it unless you said it was 'appropriate'! And you know me well en-"

"Knew. I _knew_ you well enough."

Joham threw a irritated look at his brother and carried on. "You _knew_ me well enough to know that I plan before I act, I plan for every possibility. That is obviously the reason for why you are all looking so apprehensive, I'm sure. For example, I know the vampire hunters are trying to trap us, but that is currently being handled, just as much as I know that although the shape shifters told you they would not fight with you, they changed their mind and were on their way to help, again that situation is being controlled. There are also eighty other possibilities that I have prepared for, does that sound a whole lot different to what I was like?"

Aro kept silent, looking at Joham with a strange look on his face, then stepped back to his original position looking resigned.

There was silence for a few minutes both sides staying completely still, unsure of what was going to happen. Joham just kept looking around looking at each person in every black cloak for a couple of seconds, then he turned to me... I mean Annabelle.

"Anna, I would loosen your grip slightly, he's not looking too good... did you bite him?"

"I don't think so..." I could actually feel her confusion, and nervousness at what her father might say if she has disappointed him.

When she moved I realised I couldn't actually feel my body anymore, I had blocked my senses off so completely, I wasn't entirely sure how to go back, as my panic started to increase, something seemed to merge and I was in her head.

* * *

**BPOV**

My eyes flew open and I came face to face with Sam, who was looking relieved.

"Urgh, what happened?" I groaned, feeling groggy, which was a sensation I hadn't felt for 70 years, so as you can imagine, I was confused.

"I think you passed out at least five minutes ago, drink a bit more and you should be back to normal."

"Drink what?" I asked, a wave of nausea flowing over me. I covered my mouth with my hand and focused on breathing through my nose. When it passed, Sam answered.

"Victoria, she made you a vampire, so her blood will heal you twenty times better than human blood, so you'll only need a few mouthfuls. See all that reading did pay off." He grinned, looking pleased with himself, then patted me on the back. "Hurry about it too." Then he straightened and moved to his original position.

"Here you are." She stuck her wrist out and I looked at it warily, feeling uncomfortable. "You heard Samuel didn't you? We are in the middle of a battle here you know."

Remembering, I tried to look around, but she grabbed my head and kept my face towards her wrist.

"See you can't even fight back. Chop, chop."

I sighed and bit down onto her wrist, forcing myself to take a few mouthfuls. It didn't taste pleasant, but even after the first gulp, I could feel myself returning to normal, and after three I was as sated and strengthened as I could possibly be. During this, Victoria quietly updated me in what had happened.

I jumped up looking around, and then froze. I stupidly went to run across the field to where Annabelle had my dead looking husband but Victoria grabbed me quickly.

"First put your shield over all of us, but not him, not yet, Isobel says she has a feeling it needs to be played out a little longer."

I grudgingly did as she asked but kept my shield a millimetre from Edwards body, ready to move as soon as something happened.

"Isabella! Lovely to see you back!" Joham smiled from where he was stood next to Annabelle.

"At least I didn't expect anything less from the likes of you."

She shrugged and kept quiet, looking away.

"Quick question, I may have missed something, but why are we all waiting around like nothing is going to happen? It blatantly is." Lorrie suddenly said, standing next to me.

I didn't bother trying to hush him as I was wondering the same thing myself.

"I'm waiting to show you how much you've failed." He smiled wryly, like he knew something we didn't.

I looked around and noticed that our numbers were down by at least thirty.

"How _did_ he do that?" Lorrie muttered, almost under his breath.

"We think he has a slight ability to draw people to him." I quietly told him.

Suddenly there was a commotion which was getting louder and louder, there were growls amidst yowling, screaming and shouting. Then our reinforcements emerged from the trees surrounded by half-breeds.

There were three fewer wolves than I had last known of, in their human form, there were also considerably less _Venantium_ than I had been told about, but the number of vampires were still the same.

I stopped a sigh in relief seeing that Joanne, Jack, Adam and Martiee were still among them.

"That little plan backfired, didn't it?" Aro's brother said with the air of someone who has just won something big.

"It certainly did." Martiee smiled and stepped out of the wall of half-breeds and towards Joham, and stood comfortably next to him.

Lorrie stepped forward, looking hurt and shocked.

"Honey, I still love you, but I am not on your side in this fight." She said.

I suddenly had an urge to tell Lawrence the truth myself, but I knew it was better that the secret stayed between the few of us.

"How could you? We took you in as part of the family and you go and do _this_?" I said, trying to put some disbelief and disappointment in my voice... playing along. I think it was believable.

All of a sudden Isobel appeared on my right and placed a restraining hand on my shoulder, Annabelle dropped my lifeless husband and walked into the crowd behind. A couple of seconds later she emerged with Rob, Joanne gasped and tried to run to him but Joham's children hissed and pushed her back.

"Anna, what are you doing?" Her 'father' asked.

"Well why do we need him?" She replied, dragging him while he tried to struggle free.

"Leverage my dear, you can't just go giving him back." He walked forward to stop her.

"Who said anything about giving him back?"

Before I knew what I was doing, I was sprinting over to the exact centre, where Annabelle had knelt Rob, and was pulling his head back, Joham was mirroring my actions. Joanne screamed.

Thankfully, I got there first. I knocked her back, grabbed Rob and sprinted back to the mass of black. Just as Joham tried to grab me, I threw my shield out and he was shocked across the field.

As soon as he touched the ground, Annabelle was on top of him, pinning him down. Martiee dived forward as with the half-breeds and grabbed her before she ripped his throat out.

"Do it now!" Isobel shouted.

I immediately weaved my shield around the crowd of half breeds to where Edward was lying, forgotten.

Sam took a shaken Rob, and I ran, shield tightly wrapped around me, into the crowd, only a few noticed me and they were so focused on helping their 'father', they didn't notice when I helped my dazed husband up, and leaped out, over their heads and practically dragged him to safety.

When we were behind the front lines, I turned to him and checked for any bite marks or wounds.

"Are you alright?" I asked, still unsure as to why he was so confused.

"I think I should be asking you that." He laughed lightly. "The strangest thing just happened to me. I was inside her head!" He laughed again.

"What?" I frowned, becoming more and more worried.

"All that; getting Rob and attacking Joham was all _me_. It was amazing!"

All three of the Volturi leaders, among others were looking at him, gobsmacked.

"I thought you were a mind-reader?" One of the Irish vampires, Siobhan, said.

"Me too!" He grinned.

Eleazar, and old Volturi member, stepped forward, looking confused. He had the ability to sense what ability people possessed, if they had one.

"He's changed." He told me.

"What do you mean?"

"It's like he's gained a new ability... but not. I've never seen anything like it."

A roar of anger echoed across the field as Joham leaped out of the crowd in anger.

"How dare you!" He roared at Edward.

I pushed him behind me and walked to the front, next to Aro, Marcus and Caius.

"How dare _you_ take him!" I roared back. Aro laid a hand on my arm.

"Something you didn't plan on happening then?" Caius sneered quite happily.

Joham growled, his hair was ruffled and his eyes were wide, in anger or insanity, I wasn't entirely sure.

"Last chance Joham, or we will kill you all." Marcus said.

The vampire in question just laughed hysterically, which was backed up by many of the half-breeds laughing along with him.

"Those in favour of fighting." Isobel said, looking at the four of us. I raised my hand immediately , in sync with Marcus and Caius. Aro hesitated looking like he was thinking hard, then slowly raised his hand.

"It's unanimous." Caius smiled.

Joham, looking on in disbelief, then ran his fingers through his hair and stepped back to the front line of his army.

"You'll regret this brother." He said, crouching. We all copied this action.

Then the dawn came.


	38. Loses and Endings

**It's official, I have written the last chapter! This is the penultimate chapter :( **

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* * *

**BPOV**

At the exact moment the sun lit up the horizon everyone ran, meeting in the middle, I was unable to keep my physical shield up on everyone, so I focused on my family and those invaluable.

To my disbelief, they were all able fighters, even I was having trouble killing them, it didn't help that their numbers caused us to be outnumbered three-to-one. I saw a couple of the black cloaks become overwhelmed by the half-breeds, then becoming consumed my flames. Some of the less able fighters were paired up with others and were able to keep them at bay. The leaders were being attacked by three each, as was Lawrence, Jasper, Sam, Joanne and Kaiya, as well as some others, but I was being attacked by six, making it difficult to do anything other than evading numerous blows. Every now and then I looked over at Edward and was relieved to see he was still alive.

I eventually was able to kill three of the six trying to kill me, but then others replaced them. At this moment, in the back of my mind, I wondered where Joham was.

Slowly but surely, I was aware our numbers were dropping but the pyres weren't increasing, so I assumed that they were being burned away from me. At some point I noticed that Martiee was at my back fighting others of her own.

"What. Are. You. Doing?" I shouted in between blows.

"How is it any good pretending to be on his side anymore? We are fighting, I was to try and help before the fighting began."

During one of my flips I looked around and noticed that the only member of my family still fighting was Adam, and I don't think he was on one of his normal episodes. Then it registered that Edward wasn't there. Before I could think about what happened all my opponents were dead and I was running to Adam, quickly disposing of his. Martiee had been carried off before this.

"Adam, honey. I need you to calm down please." I said.

I realised no more half-breeds were attacking, all of them were just stood around the edge of the clearing, watching. I looked around cautiously, wondering what was going on.

I felt Adam growl and I held him in an iron grip before he attacked me.

"I'm not the enemy, the ones without the cloaks are." I hissed into his ear.

Once again, Joham melted out of the mass of his 'children'.

"Now as I have said to you, I am an honorable man. The members of your side who could defend themselves sufficiently have been captured and will be released if you win."

"Win what?"

"A fight against me." Annabelle smirked, smoothly stepping out of the crowd.

"But there will be some conditions, if you win, I will release everyone after Forks is massacred and you will all be allowed to go your separated ways and we will leave you all in peace for 200 years, then we will return and kill those who don't comply. Seems like a fair deal to me."

I thought about it for a long time, finding any other options but was unable to, lets hope I could beat her and find a way to stop him before he killed the town.

"If I lose?"

"I will kill everyone." He shrugged. "Unfortunately I cannot act out that little hallucination, as it's a fight to the death."

"And Robert?"

"That little human? He can do what he likes, we let him run, we can spare one, if you save him he'll die in 200 years anyway."

"Bella." Adam whispered weakly. I loosened my grip on him.

"Love you." I kissed him on the cheek and let go of him, and he was taken away by the half-breeds.

"I accept." I unfastened my cloak and threw it to the edge, lowering into a crouch. Annabelle doing the same.

Joham signaled for the majority of his army to go, leaving only three, a young girl and two grumpy looking boys.

"I'm going to enjoy this, Swan." Annabelle grinned.

"Not as much as I am." Then she ran straight at me.

* * *

**E****dward POV**

I thought they were going to kill me but it seems not, they just shoved me in a circle surrounded by halfbreeds.

"Oh Edward." My mom ran up to me and hugged me tightly.

"Why are we all here?"

"We don't know, but it's not just those stopping us escaping," Lawrence pointed to the wall of Joham's army. "There seems to be a force field of electricity which paralyzes us when we touch it."

"Oh." I was stumped on what to do, without Bella here everyone seemed a little stuck.

I briefly took note on our losses. We had lost at least fifty, Siobhan, Liam, Senna, and Renata amongst them, including Irina and Carmen. Many were also writhing on the floor, incapacitated my the venom including Zafrina, Jane, Alec, Quentin, Jeremy and Madeline **(she has the ability to erase powers with a touch)**.

"Our best assets are gone." Caius said, sour-faced.

"Not completely."

I walked over to Eleazar, who was sat on the floor staring ahead into space.

"I'm sorry." I knelt in-front of him, slightly alarmed by his lack of thoughts. "I know you don't really want to hear this right now, but we need your help to see who is putting this force field around us, we need to finish this and do what we came to do." I squeezed his shoulder and stood back up, noticing Jack hugging a distraught Tanya and Kate clinging onto Garrett. I looked at Garrett, but he shook his head.

_Leave them be for now, Edward._

I looked around, as did others when the sound of a struggle and shouts came towards us.

"Adam! Are you alright?" I ran towards him as he was thrown in with us.

"No. No. No. No." He kept repeating and repeating it. I couldn't read his thoughts, they were too unclear.

Valerie ran to him, trying to ask him what was wrong but he wasn't very responsive.

"Adam, it's not Bella is it?" I asked him what I had been avoiding, fearing the worst as little could bring out this reaction in him. It seemed to snap him out of it though.

"We have to help her somehow!" He leapt up and began to pace.

"Why what's happening?" I asked again, warily.

"Bella and Annabelle are fighting to the death. If Bella wins, we can live for sometime longer, if she loses we all die, regardless Forks is being massacred."

"So we need to get out of here and save the town." Aro said from where he sat dejectedly on the floor.

"What about Bella?" I demanded.

"As much as I love Isabella, she knew what she was getting into, and her life in exchange for all of those in the town... well there isn't much contest."

I looked around at everyone, the majority were agreeing with him, although many looked sad about it.

"Don't worry Edward, we'll help." Lorrie said, the rest of the Swan family nodding.

"And us, we're all family now." Esme smiled.

"We'll help, I'm sure there are enough left to save the town. Besides, Bella is officially family now." Tanya sniffled, joining the discussion.

A female scream of anger and pain echoed across the forest, whether it was Bella or Annabelle, I didn't know.

"Okay, we need to get out of this force field. Eleazar, is it a halfbreed with an ability doing this?" Aro jumped up, looking at his old 'collectors piece'.

Eleazar, blinked once looked at me then sighed and focused for a few minutes.

"I'm not sure which one exactly, but I'm pretty sure." He said, not an ounce of emotion in his voice.

"That means It could be broken down?" Heidi asked.

"Almost certainly, but how much pressure do we need to apply?"

"All of us at the same time." Alice said.

"But that will incapacitate us all for a couple of seconds." Garrett said, his arms tightly around his mate.

"No it won't," I said, reading Alice's mind. "It will be spread out across us all and be ineffective."

After some more whispering about what was to happen after we broke down the barrier, we all got into a circular position, each aiming for our given halfbreed target. The hunters were behind us all as we all agreed it would be best that they didn't make contact with the shield in any way as it was such a high voltage.

Just before the signal was given, a roar of anger once again came across the forest towards us, causing my stomach to clench in anxiety. Please let her be okay.

Just as Alice's vision said, the barrier broke easily when we all impacted with it, only giving a slight tingle in my arms. The half-breed I attacked wasn't caught too much by surprise, but Lawrence quickly helped me kill them.

Some surrendered and were guarded by a small group while the majority left ran towards the town, hopefully not too late to save the humans, and the rest of us ran in the opposite direction, towards Bella.

I ran faster, so I arrived there first, my eyes were drawn to a pyre, but before I could draw any conclusions, I saw Bella and someone else fighting Joham. The girl fighting with Bella was a pretty good fighter, I could see that she'd give Bella a run for her money. When I looked more closely at her though, that was when I noticed she was a halfbreed.

I stepped forward to help but Bella hissed.

"Don't. I have enough to do without making sure you're fine." She said while she dived and twirled around Joham.

_Do as she says, she knows what she's doing. _Adam said.

Joham managed to get Bella at one point, causing her arm to be partially ripped off, so much so she couldn't use it.

_Edward, she managed to fight off over ten newborns with one arm, by herself, give her some credit. _Alice thought, also showing me that she had no visions of Bella in immediate danger.

"Kaiya, Martiee, Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, Alice, Emmett, Jasper, Tanya and Eleazar, I think it would be a good idea if you all went to see if any help is needed in the town, there's not much to be done here." Lawrence suggested, all of them nodded and left immediately. Jack and Joanne had left some time ago, with Sam, going to find Robert and check he's safe.

I had a sudden brainwave, I could try to get into Joham's head like I did with Annabelle, and then I remembered that his thoughts were blank, I wasn't even sure how I did it the first time, let alone having nothing to go off.

With a roar, Joham launched his two opponents across the field, knocking the halfbreed out cold. He stalked over to Bella, and I went to help but Lawrence gripped my arm tightly, his eyes closed.

_Go. Leave now. _He kept repeating those words in his head, directed towards Joham.

I then clicked on that he was trying to plant the idea in Joham's head that he must leave. His steps faltered and he looked around cautiously.

Suddenly, from a fairly clear morning, in a matter of seconds, the clouds covered every inch of the sky, blocking out any light. A wind blew across the field, ripping leaves off trees, and causing our black cloaks to flap around dramatically in the wind.

Joham stopped abruptly, even Bella looked scared, she began to frantically get up and screamed at us to run at the same moment three huge beasts ran out of the forest directly behind her.

I have never seen anything like them in my life. They weren't Vampire, Shifter or Human. They looked like a mutation. They had longer than normal legs, longer arms with sharp claws at the end, their faces looked like they had been pulled out slightly, giving a snoutlike look rows and rows of sharp teeth were peeking out between them, their eyes were larger than normal, and were a bright yellow.

Garrett gasped. "Werewolves."

To my relief, they ran straight past Bella, and directly to Joham. Each of them sunk their teeth into Joham as he screamed out in pure pain. I couldn't help but wince at the noise. Thankfully the beasts seemed to be somewhat merciful and pulled him apart, quickly ending him.

As they dropped the chunks of the crazed vampire, they turned to Bella, who's eyes widened. Before they could take a step, Charlie ran out of the forest to stand inbetween them.

"Please no, that's my daughter."

The three werewolves looked at each other, shrugged, and slunk off to the forest, howling.

As soon as they left, Bella's dad turned to her, she was fuming.

"How dare you do that to me!" She slapped him, and he sighed.

"I'm sorry Bella, I've been trying to gain their trust for weeks now, I found them hiding while I was in China. I would have told you, but some people called _Venantium _told me that a war was coming and we needed an element of surprise which was sure to stay that way."

She stared at Charlie for a few minutes, then mumbled, "Sorry I slapped you, dad."

"I guess I technically deserved it." He pulled her in for a hug, being careful not to touch her shoulder.

When she pulled away she moved towards me and kissed me, wrapping an arm around my neck.

Unfortunately Bella pulled away when we heard a moan, and ran to the halfbreed who was coming around, me following.

"Are you alright?" Bella asked while the girl looked around the clearing where Adam, Lawrence and Garrett were making sure Joham's remains were all burnt.

"Yeah, what happened?" She winced rubbing the side of her head, messing up her copper curls.

"We had help, he's dead." Bella pulled her to her feet.

"That's a relief." She gave a short laugh.

"Thank you for helping, I would have been doomed if you hadn't." Bella smiled a warm smile, to which the girl reciprocated.

"You're welcome. By the way my name's Vanesia Fuego, but those who know me well call me Nessie." Her chocolate brown eyes glinted as she held her hand out to Bella.

"I'm sure you know, but... my name's Isabella Swan, I like to be called Bella, and this is my husband, Edward Cullen." Bella smiled up at me.

"Pleasure." Vanesia smiled shyly.


	39. Epilogue

**Last chapter :(**

**Thank you to all of those who have stuck with this story or have enjoyed it in any way :)**

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* * *

**BPOV**

"Nessie, what do you want to eat?" I called from the kitchen.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you, I'm going out with Jake tonight." She grinned sheepishly as she walked into the kitchen.

"That's fine. As long as you're back at a sensible time, we have visitors tomorrow."

"I know, I know. I promise." She kissed me on the cheek and ran to the door where a knock just came from.

I stood in the kitchen doorway as the two embraced.

I cleared my throat and Jake looked up surprised.

"Hey Bells."

"Hey Jake. Have fun, but just don't get yourselves killed."

"Wouldn't dream of it. See you soon Bells."

I shut the door behind them as the imprinted pair jumped onto Jake's bike.

I went up to my study, checked there were no urgent messages. But as I looked at my calendar, I realised that the battle with Joham happened three years ago today, causing me to think back to what happened that day.

Once Joham had been killed by the three werewolves, we ran to the town relieved to find that only one human had been killed, we were still sad for that one person, but it was better than hundreds.

Most of the halfbreeds had given themselves up shortly after the time Joham was killed, many of them claimed they never wanted to do his bidding, but we still kept tabs on them anyway.

Everyone went home shortly after, to grieve if they lost anyone close to them, and to try and return to normal. But the Volturi stayed behind for a few days, as did the vampire hunters, so some details could be finalised between the new treaty between us all.

Robert is still human and well, he graduated a year ago, enabling us to move to New Hampshire, where he had been accepted at Dartmouth. He has already told Joanne that he only plans to finish his first year before he would like to change into a vampire, she has agreed that she'll turn him, only when he's ready, and once they're married as he wants his family to see him get married... yes he did propose last week and Joanne said yes, but says Alice is not allowed to organise it, she is only in-charge of the bridesmaids dresses.

Jack was currently visiting the Denali coven where he was having a fling with Tanya, although both of then deny there is nothing serious going on, that it's only fun, Jasper insists that something may be growing between them.

Adam has gotten slightly better over the past three years, he's taking Sam's advice and letting his anger out in small bursts after his wife showed him what he looked like when he lost it.

Victoria had been living with us since the battle, and was getting much better at controlling her thirst, she was even thinking of enrolling in college next year.

Sam and Kaiya are currently in a secluded part of Romania, for a 'break'.

Lorrie and Martiee finally got married as vampires a year ago in Norway, where they met. Martiee was still distraught over her adopted vampire family, as a few weeks after Joham was killed, Edward and I went out to Russia to see if there was any signs of them, but after a few weeks we found their remains. Martiee explained to Lorrie how she only pretended to be on Joham's side on my request to see if we could gain any information, but it was futile. Lorrie of course forgave her, but gave me absolute hell for weeks as I put her in danger.

The Cullens are currently living in Minnesota and were coming to visit tomorrow. We all realised that all of us together was too conspicuous, so we both went our separate ways, promising to visit each other at least once a month.

My dad had decided to stay with his werewolf friends who I found out were two guys called Tung and Ming, and a girl called Genji. We had decided to keep the identities of the wolves secret to the Volturi as Caius didn't exactly like them, but my dad was fascinated with their species, and they agreed that he could stay. Charlie still keeps in touch with me, he tends to call me during a full moon while they're in transition and it's too dangerous for him to be around them.

My art teacher/vampire hunter is, under the treaty, moving to whatever town we move to. He is teaching History of Art in a nearby high school, he pops in every now and then, and I've found he is actually quite fun to be around.

But then I became guilty, Nessie doesn't remember, but during my fight with Annabelle, while Nessie attacked her two siblings, Annabelle got away. I decided to let everyone believe she died in the fight, I don't really know why, but I wanted to give her a chance, all her bitterness was from her mate being killed when he was a newborn, and I couldn't really blame her, I just wanted to give her one last chance at changing herself, just like Victoria did, before I went to find her...

But the time was coming for when she would have to answer for many of her past actions, incuding some of the things Edward had learnt while in her head. Things that he thought it best to tell only me.

A tentative knock came from my study door. I smiled and said they could come in.

The door opened to reveal my husband.

"I didn't hear you get back." I turned my computer off and stood up and kissed him gently on the lips.

"It was only a minute ago." His now butterscotch eyes twinkled. "I've finally gotten somewhere with Lawrence."

Lorrie always had trust issues and wasn't too happy to have Edward around, especially as he knew what happened all those years ago.

"Really?"

"Yeah, when we were hunting, Adam Valerie, Victoria and Martiee went off by themselves and we ended up alone and he said that he now realises I 'wasn't so bad' and doesn't mind me hanging around so much." He laughed while I frowned.

"I didn't realise he was _that_ bad with you in the first place. Damn stubborn boy." I murmured.

"Hey, he said he was sorry for how he acted, and I forgave him. All done with."

"Hmm." He looked at me sternly. "Fine!" I smiled.

"I'm just going to clean myself up, without you for once."

I pouted and he laughed and kissed me on the cheek.

"We don't want to get too bored." He winked and walked to our room, locking the door behind him.

Not long after the shower started the phone rang, I sighed and moved to my desk to get it.

"Hello."

"_Hey mum, I know I have to be back by seven, but Tanya and I were thinking that we could bring Eleazar with us, he's not doing very well again." _Jack said the last bit with worry in his voice.

"That's fine, you don't have to ask that."

"_I know, but Tanya insisted as you have to 'love and respect your mother'_," I could imagine his eye roll and laughed.

"Too right. Adam is going to pick you up from the airport."

"_Okay, see you soon, love you."_

"Love you too." I put the phone down, glad I was going to see Eleazar.

He hadn't taken his mates death well, understandably, but they made a pact to carry on without the other, apparently Carmen believed in re-incarnation, but Eleazar was doubtful and was having trouble holding on. Maybe it would do him good being around people who cared about him, even my family had come to see him as a close friend as all of us tried to help him out afterward and the Denali's stayed with the Cullen's for a couple of months, losing two members of the family was a big blow.

He had approached the subject to me about maybe rejoining the Volturi as he wants something to keep him busy, and after talking it over with him, we thought it would be best if he did the same thing as I, so when I go away, he comes with me, Tanya and Kate felt better knowing their brother was with me.

I did hope, for his sake, that Carmen's beliefs were true.

And yes, I was still with the Volturi, shortly before Aro left for Volterra he took me aside and said that if I wanted to, I was welcome to leave and stay with my family, but to his surprise, I declined, I felt like the Volturi were in some ways, my extended family. He did look relieved though as he said he 'was still in need of a shield', in reference to the fact Renata was killed in the fight.

Surprisingly, in recent years, the Volturi have become more just. The laws still apply but they believe in the right to a fair trial. All this was mainly spurred on by Joham, and Aro insists that he never wants to become like his brother, after seeing him properly for the first time, he realises how terribly power affects people.

"Bella." Adam called from the living room.

I jumped down the two different staircases, and opened the oak door, finding Adam sat on the chair.

"Wha-" But I was stopped as Joanne leaped on my back and spraying gold paint on my face.

"Argh! Joanne!" I screamed and threw her off, holding her on the ground and fighting with her for the paint, spraying the room in the process. Just as I managed to wrestle it off her, she slid out from under me and ran off sticking her tongue out.

"Told you I would get you back." She cackled.

"That was years ago!" I screeched after her looking around the room in dismay at the once cream walls and rug. Adam laughing his head off in the background, and smacking the floor with his hand.

"And you can shut up, Adam." I sprayed the rest of the can over any part I could reach, while he tried to fight me off, but once the can was empty he pulled a can of pink spray paint from under the sofa cushion.

"En garde!"

"Don't you dare!" I glared at him, backing away. Just as he laughed evilly I ducked and instead he sprayed his wife right in the face who had come to see what the commotion was about.

"Uh-oh." His eyes widened at Valerie's angry face.

I giggled and ran up to my bedroom where Edward was waiting.

"Take sweet revenge on him Valerie."

"With pleasure." She called and as I went upstairs I could only hear 'ow' and 'i'm sorry sweetie'.

I don't know what I would do without my family.

As Edward took me gently in his arms, I couldn't be more content with my existence.

* * *

**Bye all :)**

**Please VOTE ON MY POLL!**


	40. Sequel

Just to let you all know I've posted the first chapter of the sequel of _Hurricane Swan._

It is called _Typhoon Swan_ (I went through so many, but thought they gave too much away about the storyline).

Synopsis: _Ten Years after Joham was defeated, order has been restored to the vampire world, the right to a fair trial has been introduced so even the Volturi can't take matters completely into their own hands. But Isabella Swan becomes more and more troubled after her each 'business trip' and her family are at a loss of how to help, until one day the Volturi have to take matters into their own hands with their youngest leader, especially when she can't tell what's real and what's not_. SEQUEL to HURRICANE SWAN.


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